From dccea7a1cc04d729284b1175ad518f2a560b33aa Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Price Hiller Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2024 22:07:26 -0600 Subject: [PATCH] feat(cs-1011): add ada lovelace contribution notes --- Spring-2023/CS-1011/ada-lovelace-notes.org | 75 ++++++++++++++++++++++ Spring-2023/CS-1011/notes.org | 20 ------ 2 files changed, 75 insertions(+), 20 deletions(-) create mode 100644 Spring-2023/CS-1011/ada-lovelace-notes.org delete mode 100644 Spring-2023/CS-1011/notes.org diff --git a/Spring-2023/CS-1011/ada-lovelace-notes.org b/Spring-2023/CS-1011/ada-lovelace-notes.org new file mode 100644 index 0000000..387b64e --- /dev/null +++ b/Spring-2023/CS-1011/ada-lovelace-notes.org @@ -0,0 +1,75 @@ +* Ada Lovelace Contribution Notes [2024-01-31 Wed 15:17] :journal: + +- For a group project detailing an important person in Computer Science history +- Based upon Stephen Wolfram's writing found [[https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2015/12/untangling-the-tale-of-ada-lovelace/][here]] + +** Analytical Engine while she was alive + +- Babbage never published serious account of Difference Engine or the Analytical Engine +- Babbage talked about the Analytical Engine in Turin in 1840 and a man named Luigi Menabrea took + notes of his lecture +- Menabrea went on to publish the paper in French in 1842 +- Ada saw the paper and chose to translate it to English and submit it to a British publication + in 1843 +- Ada took extensive notes of her own to add to the translation, the notes ended up being longer + than the translation itself +- Ada exchanged /many/ letters with Babbage, she felt she was explaining Babbage's work, not + discovering something + - She only wanted to validate things with Babbage, got annoyed when Babbage tried to make his + own corrections to her manuscript + - She originally wasn't going to sign the translation or notes, she was convinced to do so by + William King (her husband) + - Signed it "AAL" + - Saw herself primarily as an interpreter of Babbage's work +- Finished notes and translation at the end of July 1843 +- Wrote to Babbage asking for him to join in bringing the Analytical Engine to fruition with her + as a sort of CEO after writing her translation — she seemingly became wholly enraptured by the + machine +- Unfortunately for Ada her health began failing her and the Analytical Engine had to be + sidelined +- She died of cancer in November 27, 1852 at the age of 36 + +** Rediscover of Her Work After Death + +- In 1953 Bertram Bowden rediscovered Ada's work +- Researching for his book /Faster than Thought/ about computer he came across Ada's + granddaughter who told him about Ada and showed him some of Ada's papers +- As more research was done difference engines and mechanical computer's were researched and + inevitably so too was Babbage's Analytical Engine + - Remember, Babbage's Analytical Engine's primary source was Ada's translation and notes she + wrote about it + +** Why is Ada important? + +- Ada had some thoughts of what the Analytical Engine should be capable of — namely general + computation +- She asked Babbage many times on how to achieve this general computation and distilled his + likely extremely detailed answers to a clear explanation of the operation of the Analytical + Machine +- She actually published and simplified ideas about the Analytical Engine — something that + Babbage never did + - If you scream and nothing hears it, did you really scream? +- Ada had a more developed abstract understanding of the Analytical Machine than Babbage + possessed due to her work in creating her notes and translation about the Analytical Engine +- Due to this more developed abstract understanding, she had ideas of general/universal + computation which are the hallmark of modern day computers +- Babbage only saw the Analytical Engine as a more efficient way of producing mathematical + tables and just so happened to design a universal computer +- When writing about the Analytical Engine, Ada was trying to explain it as clearly as possible + - To do this she had to look at the machine in a more abstract sense and this resulted in her + seeing the machine as a gateway to universal computation +- She was seemingly the first recorded person to have ideas of universal computation in regards + to machines + - This is the most important element, the entirety of the modern world are built on the back + of universal computation + +** Is it possible Ada could have discovered modern computing had her health not failed? + +- It's not far-fetched to say that if Ada had not died so early of cancer she likely would have + played a major role in a mechanical machine capable of universal computation +- After creating the machine it's not a stretch at all that she might then create a new + machine (or perhaps even the first machine) as an electromechanical device and thus being + much closer to modern computers +- She and had a friend working with electronic communications, Charles Wheatstone who was + involved with the creation of the electric telegraph +- Ideas around Binary were beginning to show up around Ada's time, but it wasn't well known diff --git a/Spring-2023/CS-1011/notes.org b/Spring-2023/CS-1011/notes.org deleted file mode 100644 index 1fad192..0000000 --- a/Spring-2023/CS-1011/notes.org +++ /dev/null @@ -1,20 +0,0 @@ -#+FILETAGS: :college:cs1011: - -* Lecture 1 Introduction (What is Computer Science) - -[2024-01-22] - -** CS 1011 Topics - -- What is Computer Science -- How Computers Work -- Data And Resource Management -- Networks and Internet -- Security -- Artificial Intelligence -- Diversity and Social Impact - - Might not get to this - -** Group Project - -- Sign up for a Group under the =People= tab in Canvas