Interesting programming facts. Byron's daughter, the world's first programmer

Ada Byron Lovelace added comments to her translation of the article “Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine” that were three times the length of the original text. They secured its place in the history of the computer, as it was later recognized as the first detailed description of it, including what is now called software. In recognition of her innovative ideas, 100 years ahead of their time, the US Department of Defense named a programming language after her in 1980.

Her father's daughter

In contrast to her father, the famous English romantic poet Lord Byron, Ada Lovelace (the photo of her portrait is given below) chose to engage in a more objective field of activity - mathematics. Nevertheless, she turned out to be similar to him. Despite her mother's attempts to suppress any Byronic tendencies in her, her passion was just as strong.

By studying a discipline that very few women pursued, Ada went against traditional Victorian society. Her passion for mathematics can be seen in her "Notes" on Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine, a computing device that was never built. Lovelace wrote with great insight, and her ideas about the capabilities of this device became a reality in twentieth-century computers, securing her place in the history of mathematics and computer science.

Early biography

Augusta Ada Byron was born on December 10, 1815 in London. She was the only legitimate child of the famous English poet. 5 weeks after Ada was born, her mother left her oppressive husband. On April 24, 1816, the divorce took place, and Lord Byron left England forever. Ada never saw her father again because he died 8 years later in Greece. Nevertheless, he corresponded with Lady Byron regarding her welfare and studies. He also wrote about her in his poems. The line dedicated to his daughter can be found in the 3rd song of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage.

After the divorce, Lady Byron took control of Ada's upbringing, suppressing any undesirable character traits she might have inherited from her father.

The mother insisted on studying mathematics primarily because this discipline represented for her the direct opposite of everything that was associated with her depraved husband: dangerous fantasies, melancholic moods, evil and even madness. This science was for her a means of achieving moral discipline. So she made a schedule for her daughter's education, emphasizing music (as a social tool) and arithmetic (to train the mind).

Love for numbers

In the early adolescence Ada Lovelace realized that she had a real passion for numbers, similar to her father's passion for poetry. Lady Byron provided for her the best teachers, such as the Cambridge mathematician William Friend, who taught astronomy, algebra and geometry, and the mentor August De Morgan - the first professor of mathematics at the newly founded University of London. He spoke of Ada as an original researcher, perhaps of the first magnitude.

This passion did not leave her for the rest of her life. Thus, in an 1843 letter to Babbage, Lovelace expressed the hope that one more year of study would make her something of an analyst: the more she studied, the more she wanted to be one. She wrote that “her father was not the kind of poet that she was going to be, the analyst (and metaphysician) she was going to be.”

Countess Lovelace

July 8, 1835 Ada Byron married William King. In 1838 he became first Earl and she became Countess Lovelace. The following year her husband also became Lord Lieutenant of Surrey. He was 11 years older than her and considered somewhat limited, but he was proud of his wife's mathematical talents and supported her efforts.

Her husband's approval was quite fortunate for Lady Ada Lovelace, since few women of her position in Victorian England were allowed to pursue academic interests of any kind. Aristocrats considered this profession unworthy of their position. For this reason, Lovelace signed her works with initials. Consequently, her passion for mathematics was constrained not only by her gender, but also by her status.

Meet Babbage

Ada Lovelace first met Charles Babbage when she was 18 years old. This happened at a party organized by the most famous female scientist of the 19th century - Mary Fairfax Somerville. Despite the fact that Babbage was 23 years older, he became her good friend and intellectual mentor.

Ada became interested in the works as soon as she saw them. The ideal opportunity to study them came in 1840, after Babbage's Turin lecture. The Italian military engineer Luigi Federico Menabrea wrote an article about the lecture and published it in 1842 in a French edition. The translation of the article from French into English and accompanying comments by Lovelace were published in one of the issues of the prestigious series of foreign scientific works Scientific Memoirs.

"Notes"

The first lady of programming, Ada Lovelace, designated her 7 “Notes” with letters from A to G. The word “computer” in the 19th century. denoted a device that performed only arithmetic operations, or a person whose task was to add numbers. That's why Lovelace didn't use it.

In "Note A" she defined the differences between Babbage's difference engines and Babbage's analytical engines. This explanation was significant in that it described a general purpose computer that would not be invented until 100 years later. In "Note B", Lovelace discussed the concept of computer memory and the ability to insert comments into a program. This idea is similar to the current practice of using the REM, or non-executable, statement.

In Note C, Lovelace extended the method to allow operation cards to be inserted in such an order that they could be used again and again, like a loop or subroutine.

"Note D" is a very complex explanation of how to write a program. Note E emphasizes the versatility of the Analytical Engine and outlines short description operating cards indicating cycles, corresponding to modern function keys. In Note F, Lovelace explained how the Analytical Engine can decide complex problems and fix errors. It would make it possible to solve problems that are impossible due to limitations in time, labor resources and financial resources.

The last and probably the most mathematically complex and most cited is "Note G". In it, Ada formulated the "Lady Lovelace Objection" or, in more modern phrasing, the principle of "garbage in, garbage out." She wrote that the output of a computer is no worse than the information that enters it.

"Note G" contains a factual illustration by programmer Ada Lovelace of how a machine can calculate a table of Bernoulli numbers (pictured above).

Disease Control

Ada Lovelace's biography is marked by numerous illnesses. As a child she had measles and scarlet fever. Lord Byron was informed about the state of his daughter's health. She exhibited “symptoms of vascular congestion in the head, occurring to varying degrees at different times of the day.” They weren't heavy, but they never went away. Since Ada's father suffered from the same condition until the age of 14, it is possible that her migraines were hereditary.

In 1829, Lovelace suffered from an unspecified illness that left her unable to move for many months. She also had seizures. It has been suggested that they were due to her mental, and not physical condition. However, none of these diseases became permanent. Lovelace danced well, rode horses and did gymnastics. Only uterine cancer proved insurmountable for her.

Passion for mathematics and gambling

Ada Lovelace's life was fraught with difficulties that she created for herself. She had a passion not only for mathematics, but also for mathematicians. It is known that Ada had affairs with several men, whose attention she initially sought on an intellectual level. Her relationship with John Crosse turned out to be the most destructive. She pawned her husband's diamonds to pay his gambling debts, and it is possible that he was blackmailing her. Lovelace also had a penchant for gambling and asked some male friends to place bets for her.

Place in history

Ada Lovelace's passions far exceeded the capabilities of her body. She died on the evening of November 27, 1852 from uterine cancer at the age of 36. She was the same age as her father when he died. According to her will, she was buried next to her father in the family crypt at Hucknall Torquard, near Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire.

Although Lovelace's Notes were well received by her acquaintances, there is no record of how they were received by the general public. In fact, it did not become widely accepted until the historian Lord Bowden discovered the Notes in 1952 and reprinted them the following year, 110 years after the original publication.

Posthumous fame was probably not what Lovelace wanted during her lifetime. Still, she would no doubt be pleased that a fourth-generation programming language was named after her. Ada Byron Lovelace is the first programmer and interpreter of the workings of a computer. She was also a remarkable woman, interesting both for her motives and for her work, illustrating the clash of creative energy with repressed passion.

Fact 1. Under the hood of the most critical programs that you use on a daily basis (Mac OS X or Facebook) there are an awful lot of hacks and crutches that hardly get along with each other. It's like taking apart a Boeing 747 and finding that the fuel line is held in place by a clothes hanger and the landing gear is wrapped with duct tape.

The code of programs is such that even if a site or program works great and looks great, behind the scenes everything that makes it work consists of errors, blunders and crutches. It works barely and sometimes it is not at all clear why.
Fact 2: 25% of programming time is spent thinking about what the user might do wrong.
This actually takes more or less percent of the time, but each time we really need to think about what the user can break here. Where he will click, what he will enter, and how we can understand what we are trying to do incorrectly. If we relied only on ourselves, programs would have too many problems -
after all, we know how the program works, but the user does not.
Fact 3. A programmer is not a computer repair specialist.
A programmer works with algorithms and design principles, rather than fixing computers. We can understand how a computer works and how code is executed. But this does not mean that we know how to fix iron. We don't know what problem in Chrome is causing it to crash on your computer, or why your computer is overheating. Programmers program computers, not fix them.
Fact 4: Programming is about thinking, not typing.
For the most part, we program while we sleep, walk, look out the window, or do anything else that allows us to relax and think. Relaxation is one of the important aspects of programming. You can't just sit down and write a thousand lines of code and paste them into a program. We need to sit, walk around, think. Come up with a concept, correct its shortcomings, decide how it will work... Relaxation is the only way we can use to correct problems.
Fact 5. The countdown starts from zero
It is important. The calculation starts from scratch - your 1 is my 0, your 10 is my 9. All because of the need to do things efficiently, when even a small increase in efficiency can increase productivity on a scale.
Fact 6. Programming is best done in flow - in that state of mind when you are focused on the task and everything seems simple. This condition is also familiar to athletes and musicians.
Programmers love working at night because it allows us to get flow, focus on one thing at a time, and not worry about being interrupted. Everyone else is just sleeping. This is the time of day when no one is around, no one calls or tries to talk to us. Great time to think and program.
Fact 7. Sometimes it’s good to put off a problem until the morning.
Sometimes it’s really useful for programmers, when faced with a difficult problem, to sleep “with it.” Many times I have found myself unable to solve something for hours, but after just 20 minutes of sleep (or any other sleep) upon waking up, the solution came on its own.
Fact 8. A “parent” can kill his “children” if their task is completed
Not a phrase you'd want to hear from anyone. But for programmers it doesn’t sound so scary. Programs often have a hierarchical structure, where a parent process controls its child processes running at the level below.
When the parent process no longer needs the child process, it kills it - when the program no longer needs to do anything, its execution ends.
Fact 9: You're not impressed by how much we know about computers. We're not impressed by how little you know about them.
Seriously. Enough. We don't care how proud you are that you don't want to learn new things. It's understandable if you say "I don't know much about computers" or "I'm not interested in programming" - but when you brag about how much you don't know about it, it's just annoying.

Born December 10, 1815 Ada Lovelace, who created a sample of the first computer program in history.

Not a word about my father

In 1975, the US Department of Defense decided to begin developing a universal programming language. When the question arose about what to call new project, the developers presented the head of the department with a historical excursion, after reading which he without hesitation approved the name “Ada”.

The title was a tribute to a woman whose contribution to world science was only about 50 pages long. But these fifty pages turned out to be a brilliant prediction of the future.

December 10, 1815 in London, in the family poet George Byron and his wife Anna Isabella a girl was born, whom her parents named Augusta Ada.

Ada Lovelace. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Augusta Ada was the only legitimate daughter of the great poet, but Byron saw her only once, when the girl was a month old. The daughter was born when the parents' relationship had already come to an end. On April 21, 1816, Byron signed an official divorce and left England forever.

That is why neither her mother nor her maternal grandparents ever called the girl Augusta - after all, this name was given to her by her father in honor of his sister. Moreover, the relatives removed all of Byron’s books from the family library so that nothing would remind Augusta Ada of her father.

Mathematics as a family hobby

After the birth of her daughter, Anna Isabella handed her over to her parents and went on a long health cruise.

There is conflicting information about the relationship between Ada and her mother, but it is absolutely certain that Ada passed on Anna Isabella’s passion for mathematics. At one time, the lover Byron called his wife “the queen of parallelograms.”

If in other countries of the world in the first half of the 19th century women would have reacted to such a hobby with surprise, turning into condemnation, then in England, the leader of world progress of that era, they treated it quite calmly.

The mother contributed in every possible way to her daughter’s interest by inviting her to study Scottish mathematician Augustus de Morgan, who used to be the teacher of Anna Isabella herself. Ada's other teachers were Mary Somerville b, who translated “Treatise on Celestial Mechanics” into English French mathematician and astronomer Pierre-Simon Laplace.

At the age of 17, Ada went out into the world for the first time and was introduced to the king and queen. But she was much more impressed by her meeting with Charles Babbage, Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University.

Charles Babbage, Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Mr Babbage and his car

By that time, Babbage had already been developing a calculating machine for ten years that could carry out calculations with an accuracy of up to the twentieth digit. This machine, known today as Babbage's Great Difference Engine, contained the principles on which modern computers operate. That is why some call Babbage's creation the world's first computer.

A replica of the difference engine at the London Science Museum. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / Joe D

The task that Babbage took on was extremely difficult for its time. After ten years of work, the authorities gave up on the project and stopped funding it. But Babbage, like a true scientist, continued to work. In his new acquaintance, he found not only a friend, but also a devoted like-minded person.

When Ada Byron turned 20, she was married to a 29-year-old William King, 8th Baron King, who soon succeeded to the title of Lord Lovelace.

This marriage turned out to be happy: the couple had three children, and the husband sincerely loved Ada. He was sympathetic to his wife’s passion for mathematics and did not interfere with her scientific pursuits. Moreover, her husband’s impressive fortune allowed Ada not to bother herself with mercantile issues.

Contemporaries wrote that Ada Lovelace amazingly combined femininity, grace, charm and a sharp mind. She knew how to behave like a lady of high society, but was much more willing to communicate with scientists, philosophers and writers.

"Something about Bernoulli numbers"

In 1842, Charles Babbage was invited to the University of Turin to give a seminar on his Analytical Engine. Luigi Menabrea, young Italian engineer and future Prime Minister of Italy, recorded the lecture in French, and it was subsequently published in the Public Library of Geneva in October 1842.

Babbage asked Ada Lovelace to translate Menabrea's notes, adding commentary to the text.

Ada took the matter extremely seriously. The work took her more than a year. As a result, her comments took up 52 pages, proving to be more extensive than Menabrea's notes.

In 1843, a translation with commentary by Ada Lovelace, which was in fact her own scientific work, was published. The work was published under the acronym AAL, since it was considered indecent for a woman of high society to publish works under her own name.

On the eve of publication, Ada wrote to Babbage: “I want to insert in one of my notes something about Bernoulli numbers, as an example of how an implicit function can be calculated by a machine without first deciding by the head and hands of a person.”

52 pages of genius

“Something” turned out to be a brilliant prediction of the future. Ada Lovelace coined the terms “cycle” and “work cell”, “distributing card”, and described the basic principles of algorithmization. Moreover, her algorithm for calculating Bernoulli numbers on the Analytical Engine is today considered the first computer program. That is why Ada Lovelace is considered the world’s first programmer and is unofficially called the “mother of all programmers.”

“The essence and purpose of the machine will change depending on what information we put into it. The machine will be able to write music, draw pictures, and show science ways we have never dreamed of,” wrote Ada Lovelace. Think about it, these words were written in the first half of the 19th century!

However, the genius of Ada Lovelace was to be appreciated by posterity, and her work did not arouse great enthusiasm among her contemporaries due to the fact that few could appreciate its significance. Charles Babbage, one of the few who could understand the full meaning of what Ada wrote, began to call her “my dear interpreter.” But after a century and a half, it turns out that the “interpreter”, with the power of his scientific thought, looked much further into the future than the creator of the “Large Difference Engine”.

Ada Lovelace's life was short. In the early 1850s she became seriously ill and died on November 27, 1852 at the age of 36.

Some scientists work for decades and leave behind hundreds of works that are forgotten before the grave mound settles over the final resting place of their creators. Ada Lovelace, the great daughter of the great Byron, only needed 52 pages to go down in history.

Being a programmer is fashionable now. Films are made about successful programmers, books are written, and in many countries developers are paid well. But, despite the fashion for “techies” and innovations, there are many things known to programmers that are surprising to others. Quora contributors have discussed these sociocultural and cognitive differences. Below are the most interesting comments from the discussion.

So, programmers, unlike ordinary people:

1. They understand that all burglary scenes in films are complete nonsense. In general, many movie stereotypes about programmers are nonsense, writes Bill Coleman: “We are not all fat, lazy geniuses. In real life, we know how to communicate normally: our work depends on it. And don’t confuse us with electricians; many don’t even have a soldering iron at home.”

The main “hacking” effect for the uninitiated is the open console. “Most people will think I'm just staring at the screen and killing time when I'm actually working. But as soon as you open the console and start typing, they will be convinced that I am trying to hack the Pentagon or do other magical things,” writes one of the discussion participants.

2. While working, 25% of the time they rack their brains over how to figure out what the user might “break” in the application being created. “It's relatively easy to write rules for what a program should do if everything works as it should. It's much harder to write rules for what a program should do if something goes wrong,” writes Kim Moser. At the same time, many users believe that programs should behave like their smarter and more knowledgeable friends.

3. They know that in fact, even the most important software that users use every day contains a terrifying amount of “crutches” that somehow miraculously come together into a working whole. “It’s like taking apart a Boeing and discovering that the brakes are taped together,” writes one of the discussion participants, Ben Cherry. Programmers know that an appalling amount of medical, financial and personal information is stored with negligible levels of system security.

5. They know: if a person had, for example, six fingers on his hands, the main number system in the world would be decimal, and not 10, as it is now.

6. They can name many more powers of two without a calculator than an ordinary person. The abbreviation “k” in expressions like 100k is understood not as “x1000”, but as “x1024”. But while most ordinary people think that programming is mostly about mathematics, programmers know that logic comes first.

7. They know how complex simple things are on the Internet. After all, simple actions, like searching the Internet, are actually provided by many complex processes at different levels.

8. Believe that most people are too vague when trying to explain what they want.

9. They get angry when ordinary people from among relatives, friends and acquaintances constantly ask to “fix the computer.”

10. The beauty of the code may well be compared to a poem, although for the user it will look as terrible as an error message.

Programmer- a specialist who writes programs for computers.

This short description understandable to everyone, but does not reflect the full picture, because programmers can write software for a huge number of electronic devices, and not just for computers. Look around, many things around you are the result of the work of programming specialists, from toys, household appliances to cars, airplanes and space rockets. Thus, the profession of a programmer is in great demand and, more importantly, the demand for a programmer in the labor market will only grow along with the inexorable increase in the number of things and equipment for which software must be written.

The enormous demand for the profession and the bright prospects for its position in the labor market make the specialty of a programmer one of the most successful career choices. Even on initial stages a programmer's salary is above the market average, and with experience, this gap only widens. Good specialist can receive more than 100,000 rubles. per month or more.

A programmer is one of the unique professions that offer endless scope for creativity, self-realization and running personal projects for the soul or earning money.

To work successfully, a programmer does not need to have a higher education; this is one of the professions that, thanks to a large number books, online courses and other sources of information, are mastered independently if there is such a desire. The most important thing in becoming and working as a programmer is experience, and it is gained independently by working on your own or other people’s projects, helping people on forums, studying open source programs and many other ways. Thus, at an interview, having a higher education will be a definite plus during the interview, but the main deciding factor in whether to accept a job will be the result of completing test tasks.

Programmer Specializations

Conventionally, programmers can be divided into 3 large groups, which can be divided into smaller ones within themselves: these are system, application and web programmers. Let's look at each group in more detail.

System programmer - writes software that is designed to ensure the operation of the device as a whole or for use by other computer specialists. This could be operating systems, drivers, interfaces to databases, networking, and more. Another task of system programmers is to ensure the correct and uninterrupted operation of the created programs. System programmers are usually the most professional, experienced and highly paid specialists.

Application programmer– develops and debugs software to solve certain, specific problems, and can also adapt existing programs to more specific tasks, the requirements of the employer or user. The results of the work of applied programmers include: games, photo and video editors, messaging programs, accounting programs, audio and video surveillance systems, office programs, etc.

Web Programmer - in work and tasks he is similar to an application programmer, but the main focus of his activity is working with the Internet and users of networks, both local and global. Such programmers write software for the operation of websites, their correct display in browsers, create dynamically changing pages and develop interfaces to databases. Inside, they can be divided into frontend, who develop the part visible to users, and backend developers, who develop mechanisms that site visitors do not directly encounter - working with databases, processing, transferring information, etc.

Possible places of work

History of the profession

The profession of a programmer appeared quite a long time ago, in the 19th century. Of course, these were not the programmers we are accustomed to: computers as such did not yet exist, and accordingly there was nothing to write programs with algorithms for.

For many centuries, humanity has been trying to create a calculating machine: the first attempts are known from ancient Babylon 3000 BC. Blaise Pascal, who created the computer in 1642, became the founder and discoverer.

It is interesting that the first programmer was a woman, and not just a woman, but the daughter of the famous poet Byron - Ada Lovelace, who wrote several programs for a mechanical machine designed by Charles Babbage in 1833 that could perform simple arithmetic operations.

The first full-fledged computer was created by the German Konrad Zuse in 1941. There were no programming languages ​​back then; they appeared closer to the sixties of the last century, and computers (electronic computers) understood only their own machine language. Later, programming languages ​​appeared that made it possible to write a program in a form more understandable to humans and then convert it into a form understandable to a computer.

This was followed by an increasingly accelerating process of development of computers and computer science, as a result of which computing devices penetrated into all spheres and existence modern world without them it is simply impossible. That is why the profession of a programmer is one of the most in demand and highly paid.

On one's own

As mentioned earlier, the profession of a programmer can be easily mastered without obtaining a higher education. There is a huge amount at your disposal reference information, books, online and offline courses.

Educational IT portal GeekBrains offers a variety of programming courses for any level with renowned teachers and free internships. There are both paid and a significant number of free courses.

If you find it difficult to make an initial choice, then we will definitely help you free course"Basics of programming ".

Hurry up to start training. The discount on training for the “Programmer” profession is valid for you for only 3 days!

Classical higher education

Get higher education in the field of information technology is possible in many universities. When applying, it is better to focus on large or federal universities that have proven themselves in training IT specialists and have a good educational base with well-known programmers as teachers. Another factor in the quality of education is the percentage of graduates employed in their specialty, especially those working in the most well-known companies: Microsoft, Google, Yandex, SKB-Kontur and others.

In Russia, programmers are trained in the following specialties:

02.03.02 – Fundamental computer science and information Technology(bachelor's degree)

02.04.02 – Fundamental computer science and information technology (master’s degree)

03/09/03 – Applied informatics (bachelor’s degree)

09.04.03 – Applied informatics (master’s degree)

02.03.01 – Mathematics and computer science (bachelor’s degree)

02.04.01 – Mathematics and computer science (master’s degree)

01/09/02 – Computer security

The future of the programming profession

We can safely say that the need for programmers and related professions will only increase. Increasing complexity and necessity more programs will lead to an increase wages And social package, and there will be a struggle for real programming professionals.

Programmer Responsibilities

Based on scientific, technical and production tasks, the programmer develops software for their successful implementation. Determines the type, content and form of information entered into the computer, methods and methods for its processing, storage and output of finished results on the screen or printing media.

He is engaged in debugging his own and other people's programs, eliminating mistakes and improving functionality. Determines the need and possibility of using a third-party software at the enterprise.

Works on the unification and automation of computing processes, participates in the development of standard forms of enterprise documents for machine processing and storage.

Pros and cons of being a programmer

pros

• Great demand in the labor market
• Salary is significantly above average
• Excellent social package (meals, gym fees, internship compensation)
• Opportunity to work as a freelancer with foreign clients
• You can develop personal projects for the soul or to earn money
• Prestigious profession
• Creative profession with the opportunity to realize oneself
• Opportunity to retrain in related industries

Minuses

• The need to constantly improve skills
• Prolonged sedentary work at a computer
• Possibility of rush jobs and the need to urgently complete the project overtime
• There is often a large amount of work
• Possible lack of interpersonal communication

Requirements for a programmer

A programmer must have a sharp mind, developed logic and attention. Since programming is constantly evolving, it is necessary to be able to quickly adapt to new conditions and be ready to constantly learn new technologies. Otherwise, his value as a professional will decrease over time.

For some programmers who do not engage in freelancing or their own development, it is important to be able to work in a team using a variety of modern methodologies: SCRUM, KANBAN, AGILE and others. To promote career ladder and work in project management or as a lead programmer, team and task management skills and the ability to take personal responsibility for completing assigned tasks are highly desirable.

Such qualities as independence, responsibility and initiative are important for any profession and programmers are no exception.

Another important and necessary requirement for a programmer is knowledge English language at the level of reading documentation and reference information in the original. All new products and modern technologies are developed abroad and it is better to read the information in the original source.

Programmers' salaries

The approximate salary level is indicated. Depending on the region and employer, it can vary significantly.

Funny videos about programmers

Programmer's Day is celebrated on September 12th. The day was not chosen randomly and symbolically: it is the 256th day of the year, and 256 is the number of numbers that can be expressed through an eight-bit byte.

The profession of a programmer is one of the ten most popular professions in the world.

A quarter of all programming time is spent thinking about what the user might do wrong and how to prevent it.

The Python programming language is not named after pythons, although icons, logos, and ubiquitous fan art depict them. The author of the language loved the Monty Python's Flying Circus series and named the language after him.

The most expensive hyphen in history cost $135,000,000 when, thanks to a missing hyphen in one of the equations, Mariner 1, the first spacecraft to study Venus, crashed shortly after launch.

A programmer is not a computer repair specialist. Although, thanks to ingrained stereotypes, they are constantly asked to fix computers and even household appliances.

Women account for only a few percent of the total number of programmers in the world. It's a shame, especially considering the fact that the first programmer in history was a woman.

Sometimes, to debug a program, programmers use the so-called “Duckling Method”, when a duckling figurine is placed in front of the monitor (the classic version is a yellow duckling for swimming) and line by line is explained to it what the program should do. Often this method allows you to identify errors that are missed simply by looking at the written code.

Famous programmers

Richard Stallman- founder of the free software movement, the Free Software Foundation and the League for Programming Freedom, the GNU Project.

Donald Knuth– scientist, emeritus professor at Stanford University, teacher and ideologist of programming. Author of numerous monographs and the world-famous series of books “The Art of Programming”. Creator of METAFONT and TEX publishing systems for typesetting and layout of scientific and technical books.

Bill Gates– entrepreneur, public figure, philanthropist. Founder of Microsoft and the richest man on the planet. One of the record holders for donating funds to charity.

Linus Torvalds– creator of the Linux kernel, the most widely used free software operating systems.

Alexey Pajitnov- Soviet programmer, author of the famous Tetris. After moving to the USA, he continues to develop computer games.

Steve Wozniak- co-founder of Apple, single-handedly designed the Apple I and Apple II computers, which determined the development of the industry and began the microcomputer revolution.

Evgeniy Kaspersky– Russian programmer, one of the world's leading experts in the field of information security. Co-founder, owner and director of the international company Kaspersky Lab JSC.

Mark Zuckerberg- American programmer and entrepreneur, one of the founders and developers of the largest international social network Facebook.

Pavel Durov– Russian programmer and entrepreneur, one of the creators of the leading domestic social network VKontakte. One of the creators of the secure Telegram messenger.

Dennis Ritchie– computer specialist who participated in the creation of the BCPL, B, C programming languages ​​and the development of the Multics and Unix operating systems.

Quotes about programmers

When everything seems to be working, everything is integrated into the system - you still have four months of work left - C. Portman

Random number generation is too important an issue to be left to chance - R. Kovzu

Error? It's not a bug, it's a system feature - D. Wendell

The user doesn't know what he wants until he sees what he gets - E. Yodan

If debugging is a process of removing errors, then programming should be a process of introducing them - E. Dijkstra

Computers are incomparable: in a few minutes they can make such a colossal mistake that many people are not able to make in many months - M. Meacham

Any program has errors - an axiom.

Murphy's Laws for Programmers

The complexity of the program increases until it exceeds the programmer's ability.

The more mistakes a programmer makes, the faster he becomes a scientist.

If you managed to write a program the first time in which the interpreter did not find a single error, then be sure to inform the system programmer about this. It will correct errors in the interpreter.

A programmer sees errors only in other people's programs.

If the written program worked correctly, then most likely the programmer did not understand the task.

The program team always has an aversion to reporting on a weekly basis. results achieved, since it too clearly indicates the absence of such.

Absolutely any program always costs more and requires more time than expected.

If the program is already fully debugged, then it will need to be redone.

Any program strives to occupy all available memory.

The most serious bug will be identified only when the program has been in production for at least six months.

Increasing the number of programmers when developing a program that does not meet the deadlines only slows down the process.

A poorly planned program takes three times longer than expected; perfectly planned - only in two.

If the program is useful, then it will definitely have to be remade.

There is always one more error in any program.

It is absolutely impossible to create a program with absolute protection from fools, because fools are extremely inventive.

If development goes well, expect serious complications.

If it seems that things can’t get any worse, it will soon become clear that this is far from the case.

If you do not understand a term in the technical documentation, then feel free to ignore it; the meaning will not suffer from this.

Always leave room to explain why the program you wrote does not work as expected.

If builders erected buildings in the same way as programmers write programs, the first woodpecker that flew in would destroy human civilization to the ground.