Who was Ada Lovelace, and how are her life and contributions significant today? Lady Ada, the daughter of British poet Lord Byron, was a 19th century woman of many talents but with a particular leaning towards mathematics. She is commonly regarded as the world’s first programmer based on her work with Charles Babbage on his Analytical Engine. Her choice to study and specialize in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines was highly exceptional for a woman in 19th century England, but she had an excellent role model in her mother, Anne Isabella (Milbanke) Byron. Lady Byron was herself a woman of high intellect with a passion for mathematics – Lord Byron called her the “Princess of Parallelograms” – and she strongly encouraged Ada in her studies.
Ada’s seminal work in computing was honored by the United States Department of Defense through its choice of the name “Ada” in 1979 for its common high-order computer programming language. This language, with its focus on software engineering, is a fitting tribute to her accomplishments.
AdaCore is pleased to join in the celebration of Ada Lovelace’s Bicentennial with this brief summary that highlights her life and career, as well as key milestones and resources for the language that bears her name. The biographical information is drawn from Betty Toole’s book Ada, the Enchantress of Numbers.
“… I have got a scheme … which, if ever I effect it … is to make a thing in the form of a horse with a steamengine in the inside so contrived as to move an immense pair of wings, fixed on the outside of the horse, in such a manner as to carry it up into the air while a person sits on its back.” — Excerpts from letters to her mother - April 7 (Betty Alexandra Toole, Ada, the Enchantress of Numbers)
“What is Imagination? …. First: it is the Combining Faculty. …. It seizes points in common, between subjects having no very apparent connection…. Secondly: it conceives and brings into mental presence that which is far away, or invisible, or which in short does not exist within our physical & conscious cognizance….”
“Mathematical Science shows us what is. It is the language of unseen relations between things. But to use & apply that language we must be able fully to appreciate, to feel, to seize, the unseen, the unconscious. Imagination too shows us what is, the is that is beyond the senses.” — Betty Alexandra Toole, Ada, the Enchantress of Numbers
“The Analytical Engine [in contrast with the Difference Engine] … is not merely adapted for tabulating the results of one particular function and no other, but for developping and tabulating any function whatever. In fact the engine may be described as being the material expression of any indefinite function of any degree of generality and complexity…” — Betty Alexandra Toole, Ada, the Enchantress of Numbers
Biographical References for Lady Ada
Betty Alexandra Toole, Ada, the Enchantress of Numbers; Strawberry Press, Mill Valley, CA; 1992.
Doris Langley Moore, Ada, Countess of Lovelace: Byron's Legitimate Daughter; Harper and Row, New York; 1977
Sydney Padua, The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage – the (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer; Pantheon Books, New York; 2015.
Named in honor of Lady Ada, the Ada language was designed for developing reliable, safe and secure software. It has been updated several times since its initial inception in the 1980s and is a language of choice for high-integrity real-time systems. Today Ada is widely used around the globe, for developing critical systems in both government and commercial domains and for teaching and research in university computer science programs.
At age 17 Ada began her formal mathematical training by studying geometry; her interest in mathematics dominated most of her adult life. The following organizations have continued Ada’s legacy, promoting the STEM disciplines and encouraging learners of all ages to study programming and computer science.
Ada Developers Academy Ada Lovelace Day Anita Borg Institute Girls Who Code