Posted on 10/15/2013 3:08:58 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Ada, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell and me thank you...
Gender issues aside, a classmate once questioned why Boolean Algebra, used to optimize logic gates, was invented long before the existence of electronics or digital computers; my answer was that it served as a philosophical tool to systematize the finding of truth. It creates truth tables where contradictory statements are eliminated as false.
Kind of like the old lawyers' question: "Are you lying now or were you lying then?"
I can understand you enthusiasm somewhat as I think that Stroustrup is a hero for C++ but I don’t celebrate him because he is a male. I celebrate the ingenuity of his mind and the result that became the standard language of today.
Yes, I understand your role model example but really would not girls be just as enthralled if she were exclaimed as the inventor of a programming language? Did they really have to point out her gender to make it more palatable? That is my point and my complaint. Too much PC in all things...
She was actually Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace. Just like he was George Gordon, Lord Byron.
A Fine book. Alternate history, Babbage's machine works and revolutionizes Victorian Britain. A key work in steampunk literature. Ada is a character (though minor, and more of a mcguffin).
Language of languages.
Huge, huge, huge disaster. General Short finally determined that Ada would live or die with Stanfins and Stanfins died BECAUSE of Ada. The End....
That’s really fascinating.
I bet she could create a working website for $90 million
“Good ol Ada. Language of languages.”
Yeah, just like a woman, you can read her but you can’t understand what the Hell she’s saying! :)
They never gave Ada the proper implementation anchoring, and that was just one thing. She coulda been a contender :).
The flaws were intrinsic and overwhelming. There was nothing anybody could have done to save the thing.
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