Look at all those faces! They have all contributed to the history of computer programming! A round of applause for these people.
Get to know more about how they contributed. Keep reading, folks! Here are 5 First Facts about Programming you might not know yet:
#1 The first “pre-computers”
The machine invented by a merchant named Joseph Marie Jacquard became the first pre-computer. Years later, Charles Babbage, the Father of Computing, invented the machine called Analytic Engine that is programmed with punch cards for it to work.
This power loom machine invented by Jacquard made significance in the creation of the well-known first mechanical computer, Analytic Engine since it was patterned from the card-reading technology of Jacquard’s power loom.
The punch cards made the HUMONGOUS mechanical computer to be programmable. The Power Loom can be set to create textile designs automatically and the Analytic Engine can be programmed to make calculations on big numbers.
#2 First-ever computer programmer
Yes, you guys! The first-ever computer programmer was a woman. Her name is Ada Lovelace.
Ada is a British mathematician who made an English translation of an article written about the Analytic Engine invented by Charles Babbage. Her extensive notes about the machine’s capabilities were indeed visionary.
When she was young, she was privately tutored in Mathematics and Science. As she grew older, she did a collaboration with Babbage.
Ada’s explanation about what the Analytic Engine can do was more precise than Charles Babbage’s own explanation. Her systematic description regarding the algorithm of the Analytic Engine, if it were ever written in a computer, had made her known as the first-ever computer programmer.
#3 First-ever game created
Look at that monitor. It looks like you’re watching something astronomy. Well, that’s because what you can see in that monitor is the game called Spacewar. Made sense, right?
The Spacewar computer game is a multiplayer game created back in 1962 by Steve Russel.
The game is simple. It is a two-player game where players get to control a mini spaceship of their own with the goal to destroy your opponent’s spaceship before yours does. To intensify the battle, you would have to avoid the white star in the middle because if you got in contact with it, your spaceship will kaboom! Game over.
Cool, right?
#4 The first computer “bug” was actually a real bug
The term “bug” used as a term for a technical error was coined by Thomas Edison.
In the year 1974, an admiral in the US Navy named Grace Hopper mentioned in her logbook that a certain bug was hindering a Mark II computer to work.
Written in Hopper’s logbook is this quote: “First actual case of bug being found.” Note that it was actually a real bug and when she got rid of the bug, she noted in her logbook that the bug in the computer was already “debugged.”
Amazing coding terminologies, am I right?
#5 The first virus was created in 1981.
Richard Skrenta was only 15 years old when he wrote the 400 lines that make up the computer virus he named the “Elk Cloner” virus. His main goal for creating this computer virus was to prank his friends with it.
It was only in 1983 when the term “computer virus” was defined by Fred Cohen, the inventor of computer virus defense techniques. Later, it was discovered that on January 30, 1981, a kid prankster created the first-ever computer virus.
ANOTHER FUN FACT
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