Re: Recent Additions to the "Who's Using Ada" Report

[parker@bruce.nist.gov (Jonathan Parker)]

In article <1993Mar19.205428.7061@seas.gwu.edu> mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu  
(Michael Feldman) writes:
> ...Perhaps the most interesting entry is the one from Belgium showing
> Ada applied to Jacquard knitting machines and other textile looms.
> Those who know their computer history will recall that the Jacquard
> loom was developed in France in the 18th century, and was "programmed"
> with a very early version of the punched card. From the Jacquard loom
> (and the music box) came the punched-roll player piano, from which
> Herman Hollerith - in 1885 or so - got the idea for the punched card
> used in the 1890 census. The rest, as they say, is history.
> 
> What goes around, comes around. Perhaps the real Ada would be proud...
> 
Funny, I was just reading a Scientific American article on Babbage's
Analytical Engine (Feb. 1993, by Doron Swade).  The programs that Ada 
wrote were meant to have been entered into the engine by Jacquard loom
inspired punch cards.  Here's an extended quote from the article:

  "Babbage's reputation as computer pioneer largely rests on another,
more sophisticated device - the Analytical Engine, conceived by 1834.
He intended the Analytical Engine as a general-purpose programmable
computing machine, whose features are startlingly similar to those of  
modern
electronic computers.  It has a basic repertoire of operations (addition,
subtraction, multiplication and division) that it could execute in any
sequence.  The internal architecture of the machine featured a separate
"store" and "mill," equivalent to the memory and processor in a modern
computer.  The separation of store and mill has been a dominant feature
of electronic computers since the mid-1940s. 
  "The Analytical Engine could be programmed by using punch card, a  
technique
previously used in the Jacquard loom to control the patterns of woven
thread.  The Analytical Engine could take alternative courses of action
depending on the result of a calculation, enabling it to perform
complex functions...

--Jonathan