Developer! Developer! Developer! East Anglia

DDD East Anglia

Saturday 21 September 2019
Cambridge, UK

The Very First Computer Program

Steven Goodwin Steven Goodwin

We all know that Ada Lovelace is credited as the first computer programmer. But what did she write? What did it do? And how does it work?

In this talk, we'll break down the very first program ever written to explain what it does and how it works. And then we can go on to simulate it within a JavaScript version of Babbage's analytical engine, rewriting it piece-by-piece until it looks like modern code, and thereby demonstrate what features of current languages we now all take for granted.

We'll finish up with a discussion on the controversy surrounding her involvement in computing, aiming to answer the question once and for all - "Was she really the first programmer?"