Editing Ada Lovelace (section)

====Controversy over contribution====
Based on this work, Lovelace is often called the first computer programmer<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Haugtvedt |first1=Erica |last2=Abata |first2=Duane |date=2021 |title=Ada Lovelace: First Computer Programmer and Hacker? |url=http://peer.asee.org/36646 |journal=ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access |publisher=ASEE Conferences |doi=10.18260/1-2--36646}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Adams |first=Beverley |title=Ada Lovelace: The World's First Computer Programmer |publisher=Pen & Sword History |year=2023 |isbn=9781399082532 |location=Philadelphia, USA}}</ref> and her method has been called the world's first computer program.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gleick |first=James |author-link=James Gleick |year=2011 |title=[[The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood]] |location=London |publisher=Fourth Estate |pages=116–118}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Simonite|first=Tom|url=https://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2009/03/ada-lovelace-day.html|title=Short Sharp Science: Celebrating Ada Lovelace: the 'world's first programmer'| work=[[New Scientist]] |date=24 March 2009|archive-date=27 March 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090327073325/https://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2009/03/ada-lovelace-day.html |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Parker|first1=Matt|title=Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension|date=2014|publisher=Farrar, Straus & Giroux|isbn=978-0-374-27565-5|page=261}}</ref>

Eugene Eric Kim and Betty Alexandra Toole consider it "incorrect" to regard Lovelace as the first computer programmer.{{sfn|Kim|Toole|1999}} Babbage claims credit in his autobiography for the algorithm in Note G,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Babbage |first=Charles |url=https://archive.org/details/passagesfromlife0000babb/mode/2up |title=Passages from the life of a philosopher |date=1864 |publisher=New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press ; Piscataway, N.J. : IEEE Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-8135-2066-7 |quote=We discussed together the various illustrations that might be introduced: I suggested several, but the selection was entirely her own. So also was the algebraic working out of the different problems, except, indeed, that relating to the numbers of Bernouilli, which I had offered to do to save Lady Lovelace the trouble. This she sent back to me for an amendment, having detected a grave mistake which I had made in the process.}}</ref> and regardless of the extent of Lovelace's contribution to it, she was not the very first person to write a program for the Analytical Engine, as Babbage had written the initial programs for it, although the majority were never published.{{sfn|Kim|Toole|1999}} Bromley notes several dozen sample programs prepared by Babbage between 1837 and 1840, all substantially predating Lovelace's notes.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Bromley |first=Allan G. |date=July–September 1982 |title=Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine, 1838 |journal=IEEE Annals of the History of Computing |url=http://athena.union.edu/~hemmendd/Courses/cs80/an-engine.pdf |pages=197–217 |volume=4 |issue=3 |doi=10.1109/mahc.1982.10028 |s2cid=2285332 |access-date=25 December 2015 |archive-date=26 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210226094829/http://athena.union.edu/~hemmendd/Courses/cs80/an-engine.pdf |url-status=dead }} p. 197.</ref> [[Dorothy K. Stein]] regards Lovelace's notes as "more a reflection of the mathematical uncertainty of the author, the political purposes of the inventor, and, above all, of the social and cultural context in which it was written, than a blueprint for a scientific development".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Stein |first=Dorothy K. |author-link=Dorothy Stein |year=1984 |title=Lady Lovelace's Notes: Technical Text and Cultural Context |journal=Victorian Studies |pages=33–67 |volume=28 |issue=1}} p. 34.</ref>

[[Allan Bromley (historian)|Allan G. Bromley]], in the 1990 article ''Difference and Analytical Engines'':
{{Blockquote|All but one of the programs cited in her notes had been prepared by Babbage from three to seven years earlier. The exception was prepared by Babbage for her, although she did detect a "bug" in it. Not only is there no evidence that Ada ever prepared a program for the Analytical Engine, but her correspondence with Babbage shows that she did not have the knowledge to do so.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bromley |first=Allan G. |author-link=Allan G. Bromley |contribution=Difference and Analytical Engines |title=Computing Before Computers |editor-first=William |editor-last=Aspray |publisher=Iowa State University Press |location=Ames |pages=59–98 |chapter-url=http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/CBC-Ch-02.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/CBC-Ch-02.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |date=1990 |isbn=0-8138-0047-1}} p. 89.</ref>}}

Bruce Collier wrote that Lovelace "made a considerable contribution to publicizing the Analytical Engine, but there is no evidence that she advanced the design or theory of it in any way".<ref name="Collier 1990 p.">{{cite book |last=Collier |first=Bruce |title=The Little Engines that Could've: The Calculating Machines of Charles Babbage |date=1990 |publisher=[[Garland Science]]  |isbn=0-8240-0043-9 |page=181}}</ref>

[[Doron Swade]] has said that Ada only published the first computer program instead of actually writing it, but agrees that she was the only person to see the potential of the analytical engine as a machine capable of expressing entities other than quantities.<ref>{{cite speech |last=Swade |first=Doron |author-link=Doron Swade |title=Charles Babbage and Difference Engine No. 2 |event=Talks at Google |date=12 May 2008 |location=Mountain View, CA |publisher=Talks at Google via YouTube |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7K5p_tBcrd0&t=36m29s | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211122/7K5p_tBcrd0| archive-date=2021-11-22 | url-status=live|access-date=29 November 2018}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

In his book, ''Idea Makers'', [[Stephen Wolfram]] defends Lovelace's contributions. While acknowledging that Babbage wrote several unpublished algorithms for the Analytical Engine prior to Lovelace's notes, Wolfram argues that "there's nothing as sophisticated—or as clean—as Ada's computation of the Bernoulli numbers. Babbage certainly helped and commented on Ada's work, but she was definitely the driver of it." Wolfram then suggests that Lovelace's main achievement was to distill from Babbage's correspondence "a clear exposition of the abstract operation of the machine—something which Babbage never did".<ref name="Wolfram">{{cite book |last=Wolfram |first=Stephen |title=Idea Makers: Personal Perspectives on the Lives & Ideas of Some Notable People |date=2016 |publisher=Wolfram Media |isbn=978-1-57955-003-5 |pages=45–98}}</ref>