Uri Granta, software engineer
While in popular culture Ada Lovelace is indeed often viewed as the 'first programmer', personally I think this is both misleading and possibly counterproductive.
As John Colagioia points out, any answer to the question will depend on your definition of 'programmer'. Ostensibly, the dictionary definition is straightforward: a programmer is someone who writes computer programs.
Simply creating algorithms is clearly not enough: Euclid may have invented Euclid's algorithm, and Gauss the (essence of the) Fast Fourier transform, but both developed them for humans not machines. Arguably they may be considered computer scientists, but certainly not programmers. The fact that both algorithms are now run on computers is neither here not there
Similarly, the inventors of algorithms for the abacus, slide rule or Pascal's calculator were not programmers either, as while these were mechanical computational devices, they weren't general purpose enough to be described as computers.
Babbage's Analytical Engine was general enough to be described as a computer. Algorithms written for it may therefore plausibly be described as computer programs. The fact that the computer was never built and the programs were never run does in my opinion make their creation less like normal programming, though perhaps not excessively so. (We don't consider Turing a programmer despite him writing programs for the Turing machine but in that case the programs were never intended to be run.).
A far more serious issue is that Lovelace was not the first person to write programs for the Analytic Engine: Babbage was. She was not even the second: Menabrea, whose work Lovelace translated, also wrote some simple programs. In fact, most of the programs in Lovelace's notes had been completed by Babbage years earlier. The one original program was also based on Babbage's work, though Lovelace did find and fix a 'bug' in it. The work was published under Lovelace's (and Menabrea's) name, but that doesn't counteract Babbage's priority.
Perhaps the way in which Lovelace comes closest to being the 'first programmer' is that unlike Babbage, her original work was purely concerned with software, while he also dealt with hardware; and unlike Menabrea, her programs were not trivial. Still, her contribution was too much of a one off in my opinion to satisfy this restricted 'habitual' definition of programmer as someone who regularly writes programs.
The reason that I think describing Lovelace as the first programmer is counterproductive is that it overshadows the far more important work of other female computing pioneers, including those who I believe genuinely were the first programmers. In my opinion, these women are far better role models for girls (and boys) in STEM, as they worked in a less 'exotic' environment that is easier to relate to, and achieved much more tangible (and undisputed) results. Just as Emmy Noether and Maryam Mirzakhani are better role models than the oft misrepresented Hypatia, pioneers such as Grace Hopper and Betty Holberton are, I feel, better role models than the steampunk myth that Lovelace has become.
So who were the first programmers?
The first program that was run on an electronic computer was probably written by Konrad Zuse in 1941. However, the first regularly working programmers, who worked using an archaic interface and (unsurprisingly) no manuals, were the original ENIAC team: Kathleen Antonelli, Jean Bartik, Betty Holberton, Marlyn Meltzer, Frances Spence and Ruth Teitelbaum. The first technical author was Adele Goldstine, who wrote ENIAC's technical description. Of these, Holberton had the most influlential post-ENIAC career (amongs other things, she was responsible for the first mainframe sort merge). She was soon joined by the likes of Grace Hopper, Jean Sammet and many others.
For more information about the ENIAC programmers see the ENIAC Programmers Project website.
As John Colagioia points out, any answer to the question will depend on your definition of 'programmer'. Ostensibly, the dictionary definition is straightforward: a programmer is someone who writes computer programs.
Simply creating algorithms is clearly not enough: Euclid may have invented Euclid's algorithm, and Gauss the (essence of the) Fast Fourier transform, but both developed them for humans not machines. Arguably they may be considered computer scientists, but certainly not programmers. The fact that both algorithms are now run on computers is neither here not there
Similarly, the inventors of algorithms for the abacus, slide rule or Pascal's calculator were not programmers either, as while these were mechanical computational devices, they weren't general purpose enough to be described as computers.
Babbage's Analytical Engine was general enough to be described as a computer. Algorithms written for it may therefore plausibly be described as computer programs. The fact that the computer was never built and the programs were never run does in my opinion make their creation less like normal programming, though perhaps not excessively so. (We don't consider Turing a programmer despite him writing programs for the Turing machine but in that case the programs were never intended to be run.).
A far more serious issue is that Lovelace was not the first person to write programs for the Analytic Engine: Babbage was. She was not even the second: Menabrea, whose work Lovelace translated, also wrote some simple programs. In fact, most of the programs in Lovelace's notes had been completed by Babbage years earlier. The one original program was also based on Babbage's work, though Lovelace did find and fix a 'bug' in it. The work was published under Lovelace's (and Menabrea's) name, but that doesn't counteract Babbage's priority.
Perhaps the way in which Lovelace comes closest to being the 'first programmer' is that unlike Babbage, her original work was purely concerned with software, while he also dealt with hardware; and unlike Menabrea, her programs were not trivial. Still, her contribution was too much of a one off in my opinion to satisfy this restricted 'habitual' definition of programmer as someone who regularly writes programs.
The reason that I think describing Lovelace as the first programmer is counterproductive is that it overshadows the far more important work of other female computing pioneers, including those who I believe genuinely were the first programmers. In my opinion, these women are far better role models for girls (and boys) in STEM, as they worked in a less 'exotic' environment that is easier to relate to, and achieved much more tangible (and undisputed) results. Just as Emmy Noether and Maryam Mirzakhani are better role models than the oft misrepresented Hypatia, pioneers such as Grace Hopper and Betty Holberton are, I feel, better role models than the steampunk myth that Lovelace has become.
So who were the first programmers?
The first program that was run on an electronic computer was probably written by Konrad Zuse in 1941. However, the first regularly working programmers, who worked using an archaic interface and (unsurprisingly) no manuals, were the original ENIAC team: Kathleen Antonelli, Jean Bartik, Betty Holberton, Marlyn Meltzer, Frances Spence and Ruth Teitelbaum. The first technical author was Adele Goldstine, who wrote ENIAC's technical description. Of these, Holberton had the most influlential post-ENIAC career (amongs other things, she was responsible for the first mainframe sort merge). She was soon joined by the likes of Grace Hopper, Jean Sammet and many others.
For more information about the ENIAC programmers see the ENIAC Programmers Project website.
About the Author
Uri Granta
father, husband, programmerFormer software engineer at Hewlett-Packard
MMath from Trinity College, Cambridge
Lives in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, UK
6.8m answer views113.2k this month
Top Writer2018, 2017, and 2016