Linux for the elderly?
in [UK Linux]
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From: Johnny B Good on 13 Nov 2009 19:36 The message <20091113171256.573a71bb(a)debian> from Folderol <folderol(a)ukfsn.org> contains these words: ====snip==== To make up for the "All Quotes, No Reply" posting ;-) > I sometimes like to ask these 'experts' if they know who Ada Lovelace > was :) A 'nice' question. She is largely remembered for being the first programmer to (literally) discover the first computer bug. Without googling to check the precise details, afaicr, a moth had crept into the innards of the mainframe she was head programmer for which had caused the hardware to misoperate revealing the real cause of the software 'failure'. This led to the expression "There must be a bug in the program" whenever a program failed to work as intended. -- Regards, John. Please remove the "ohggcyht" before replying. The address has been munged to reject Spam-bots.
From: Chris F.A. Johnson on 13 Nov 2009 20:42 On 2009-11-14, Johnny B Good wrote: > The message <20091113171256.573a71bb(a)debian> > from Folderol <folderol(a)ukfsn.org> contains these words: > > ====snip==== To make up for the "All Quotes, No Reply" posting ;-) > >> I sometimes like to ask these 'experts' if they know who Ada Lovelace >> was :) > > A 'nice' question. > > She is largely remembered for being the first programmer ...so far so good. > to (literally) > discover the first computer bug. > > Without googling to check the precise details, afaicr, a moth had crept > into the innards of the mainframe she was head programmer for which had > caused the hardware to misoperate revealing the real cause of the > software 'failure'. This led to the expression "There must be a bug in > the program" whenever a program failed to work as intended. You are mixing her up with Grace Hopper. Ada Lovelace was the previous century. -- Chris F.A. Johnson <http://cfajohnson.com> Author: ======================= Pro Bash Programming: Scripting the GNU/Linux Shell (2009, Apress) Shell Scripting Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (2005, Apress)
From: Martin Gregorie on 14 Nov 2009 07:18 On Sat, 14 Nov 2009 01:42:12 +0000, Chris F.A. Johnson wrote: >Ada Lovelace was the previous century. > She was chief programmer in waiting for Babbage's Analytical Engine. Slightly OTT, but for an imaginative take on programming such beasts, try Bruce Stirling's "The Difference Engine". -- martin@ | Martin Gregorie gregorie. | Essex, UK org |
From: Folderol on 14 Nov 2009 09:09 On Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:18:47 +0000 (UTC) Martin Gregorie <martin(a)address-in-sig.invalid> wrote: > On Sat, 14 Nov 2009 01:42:12 +0000, Chris F.A. Johnson wrote: > > >Ada Lovelace was the previous century. > > > She was chief programmer in waiting for Babbage's Analytical Engine. > > Slightly OTT, but for an imaginative take on programming such beasts, try > Bruce Stirling's "The Difference Engine". She was also a serious mathematician in her own right. -- Will J G
From: Whiskers on 14 Nov 2009 10:37
On 2009-11-14, Martin <me(a)address.invalid> wrote: > On 14 Nov 2009 01:42:12 GMT, "Chris F.A. Johnson" <cfajohnson(a)gmail.com> wrote: [...] > and the Babbage "computer" Ada "programmed" was never completed. It was eventually - in 1991, and got a printer in 2000 <http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects/computing_and_data_processing/1992-556.aspx> -- -- ^^^^^^^^^^ -- Whiskers -- ~~~~~~~~~~ |