Ada Byron, the daughter of Lord Byron, was Charles Babbage's assistant throughout the mid
1800s when he was attempting to
build his analytical engine. During this period she developed the algorithms which
would allow the engine to compute the values of mathematical functions, and published a collection of notes that
established the basis for computer programming.
Babbage's machine was not successfully realised during
his lifetime, primarily because the technology of the the time did
not allow mechanical parts to be constructed with sufficient tolerances. However, as a consequence of her work with
Babbage, Countess Lovelace
is recognised as the first
computer programmer. The modern Ada programming language is named in her honour.
Created and maintained by Frans Coenen. Last updated 03 July 2001