5 ms·

Holy shit. I got shivers the moment I realized Sinclair actually finds and fixes a bug from the very first program written in 1843. In her “diagram of develo

by zaroth 8y ago

Holy shit. I got shivers the moment I realized Sinclair actually finds and fixes a bug from the very first program written in 1843. In her “diagram of development,” Lovelace gives the fourth operation as v5 / v4. But the correct ordering here is v4 / v5. 1843! I was recently at the Musee des arts et metiers in Paris, and they have several original Pascalines on display. So many marvels packed into a very tight space, it is one of my favorite in Paris and I would highly recommend it. I'm not sure what they have on Lovelace, I'll admit I was pretty overwhelmed with the collection. Their computer collection alone is a museums worth, and they cover much, much more than just computer history (a lot of mechanical engineering for starters). If they don't have this algorithm on display, they absolutely should. A leather-bound first edition Lovelace including this algorithm recently sold for about $120,000. That actually seems like a bargain when you think about the level of the accomplishment. [1] I agree with OP that most likely the bug is in the transcription and not present in the original manuscript. [1] - https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jul/24/ada-lovelace-first-edition-pioneering-algorithm-program https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jul/24/ada-lovelace-f...

kornish 8y ago
What else would you recommend checking out in Paris by way of museums?
- modells 8y ago
  The ossuary, for sure. Louvre is a meh. The park adjacent to the Louvre is good-to-go. Wander between the Louvre and Eiffel, there is a brassiere frequented by diplomats. Pickup intramural football (soccer) by the nurses' college just across the river. Explore on foot with only a rough plan is usually the best way to find treasures.
- lostlogin 8y ago
  The National Museum of Natural History is unlike any other I’ve been to. It is fairly worn out but is great. It is displayed in a very different t format to what I’m used to. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Museum_of_Natural_History_(France) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Museum_of_Natural_H... Quiet and completely excellent, The Museum of Heritage and Architecture. https://www.unjourdeplusaparis.com/en/paris-culture/musee-cite-de-larchitecture-et-du-patrimoine-paris https://www.unjourdeplusaparis.com/en/paris-culture/musee-ci... The Army Museum is worth a visit - it is interesting to see a less Anglo centric view of the wars, particularly WW1. The paintings are deeply grim - not ideal if you have young kids. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musée_de_l%27Armée https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musée_de_l%27Armée The Museum of the Middle Ages is currently being renovated but is well regarded. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musée_de_Cluny_–_Musée_national_du_Moyen_Âge https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musée_de_Cluny_–_Musée_natio... Probably a candidate for best museum in the world, the Louvre is a great way to completely waste a day with massive crowds, sore feet, food and water shortages, closed exhibits, intense heat and even more crowds. Get a map ahead of time and check that the things you want to see aren’t closed before you go.
  - jfk13 8y ago
    If you want to see an outstanding collection of art without having to face the Louvre crowds, try the Musée d'Orsay: a vastly more pleasant experience, IMO. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musée_d%27Orsay https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musée_d%27Orsay
- cr1895 8y ago
  The Guimet Asiatic art museum is pretty spectacular: http://www.guimet.fr/ http://www.guimet.fr/
- mallomarmeasle 8y ago
  Looks like it is currently closed, but from an interesting infrastructure standpoint, the Musée des Égouts de Paris (sewers underneath Paris). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Sewer_Museum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Sewer_Museum
- garmaine 8y ago
  The Louvre must be on any list.
- gregschlom 8y ago
  My favorite is La Cité des Sciences, although it's not really a museum but more of an exhibition place for all things related to science. Used to go there all the time as a kid, especially to read 2600 magazine in the library.
- atombender 8y ago
  The Pompidou Centre (Centre Georges Pompidou) [1]. It's technically not a single museum, but several, including the largest museum for modern art in Europe (Musée National d'Art Moderne) and IRCAM, which is about music and acoustic research. If you're into modern art and/or architecture, it's a must-see. The center itself is a beautiful mess of industrial design, and they have everything ranging from modern paintings to furniture to contemporary sculptures to technological inventions. Two of the current exhibitions are an installation by Ryoji Ikeda [2], which is one of the most superb audiovisual pieces I've seen (you sit in a completely dark room and watch a huge projection) and Coder Le Monde [3], a history of generative art (digital 2D and 3D, as well as physical), computer graphics and visualization. Both are fantastic. The nearby Palais de Tokyo is also fun, as is the Museum of Modern Art, which is next door to it. Everyone mentions the Louvre, but it is incredibly crowded and touristy, and the 90% of the paintings are portraits of 19th century nobility. The gardens surrounding the Louvre are much enjoyable than the inside, in my (possibly unpopular) opinion. [1] https://www.centrepompidou.fr/en https://www.centrepompidou.fr/en [2] https://www.centrepompidou.fr/cpv/agenda/event.action?param.id=FR_R-b17897412166108a75b9acb7bf345ee&param.idSource=FR_E-b17897412166108a75b9acb7bf345ee https://www.centrepompidou.fr/cpv/agenda/event.action?param.... [3] https://www.centrepompidou.fr/cpv/agenda/event.action?param.id=FR_R-ee6b22e72a6bbd1a92f6cfaceca117d&param.idSource=FR_E-ee6b22e72a6bbd1a92f6cfaceca117d https://www.centrepompidou.fr/cpv/agenda/event.action?param....
epicureanideal 8y ago
Is this the first documented instance of finding a bug in a computer program? That should be a more well known milestone in my opinion.
- modernerd 8y ago
  The author mentions that another blogger, Jim Randell, found the same error in 2015 when translating the tables to Python: https://enigmaticcode.wordpress.com/tag/bernoulli-numbers/ https://enigmaticcode.wordpress.com/tag/bernoulli-numbers/ It's also debated whether these were bugs from Ada or transcription errors. But, yes, it does seem like an interesting milestone
  - adtac 8y ago
    >It's also debated whether these were bugs from Ada or transcription errors Transcription errors would make this the first bug due to bit rot in a special sense! Still quite remarkable :)
    - moomin 8y ago
      git blame a bit hard in this case.
haihaibye 8y ago
It was the first published program but not the first. To be the first, you have to believe Babbage designed a general purpose computer that could accept instructions and never wrote any instructions. https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/ada-lovelace-original-and-visionary-but-no-programmer/ https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/ada-lovelace-original-and-vi... “I confirm that the manuscript evidence clearly shows that Babbage wrote ‘programs’ for his Analytical Engine in 1836-7 i.e. 6-7 years before the publication of Lovelace’s article in 1843. There are about 24 of such ‘programs’ and they have the identical features of the Lovelace’s famous ‘program’,” adds Swade. The historian says that the new tests are “unarguable” and that they “do not support, indeed they contradict the claim that Lovelace was the ‘first programmer’.”
- danielvf 8y ago
  A group working on building an Analytical Engine, discovered that Lovelace’s Bernoulli program almost certainly would not be able to run on the Analytical Engine in Babbage’s notebooks. The “instruction set” was missing some required features. http://blog.plan28.org/2016/10/how-we-got-to-where-we-are.html http://blog.plan28.org/2016/10/how-we-got-to-where-we-are.ht...
  - SiempreViernes 8y ago
    Better yet, that version didn’t have conditionals the user could employ at all, so it isn’t even a proper computer but rather a calculator.
  - acqq 8y ago
    From what I understand, she clearly understood the limitations of what Babbage achieved and wrote her program to demonstrate the value of extending the hardware in order to run more universal "programs," like the one she writes! http://rclab.de/rclab/_media/analyticalengine/aal_noteg_glaschick_v1.2.pdf http://rclab.de/rclab/_media/analyticalengine/aal_noteg_glas... Also note that apparently Babbage later did consider exactly the implementation of the said missing hardware functionality: http://blog.plan28.org/2016/10/how-we-got-to-where-we-are.html?showComment=1475978550566#c4003280010770075340 http://blog.plan28.org/2016/10/how-we-got-to-where-we-are.ht...

by zaroth 8y ago

kornish 8y ago

What else would you recommend checking out in Paris by way of museums?

modells 8y ago
The ossuary, for sure. Louvre is a meh. The park adjacent to the Louvre is good-to-go. Wander between the Louvre and Eiffel, there is a brassiere frequented by diplomats. Pickup intramural football (soccer) by the nurses' college just across the river. Explore on foot with only a rough plan is usually the best way to find treasures.
lostlogin 8y ago
The National Museum of Natural History is unlike any other I’ve been to. It is fairly worn out but is great. It is displayed in a very different t format to what I’m used to. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Museum_of_Natural_History_(France) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Museum_of_Natural_H... Quiet and completely excellent, The Museum of Heritage and Architecture. https://www.unjourdeplusaparis.com/en/paris-culture/musee-cite-de-larchitecture-et-du-patrimoine-paris https://www.unjourdeplusaparis.com/en/paris-culture/musee-ci... The Army Museum is worth a visit - it is interesting to see a less Anglo centric view of the wars, particularly WW1. The paintings are deeply grim - not ideal if you have young kids. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musée_de_l%27Armée https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musée_de_l%27Armée The Museum of the Middle Ages is currently being renovated but is well regarded. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musée_de_Cluny_–_Musée_national_du_Moyen_Âge https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musée_de_Cluny_–_Musée_natio... Probably a candidate for best museum in the world, the Louvre is a great way to completely waste a day with massive crowds, sore feet, food and water shortages, closed exhibits, intense heat and even more crowds. Get a map ahead of time and check that the things you want to see aren’t closed before you go.
- jfk13 8y ago
  If you want to see an outstanding collection of art without having to face the Louvre crowds, try the Musée d'Orsay: a vastly more pleasant experience, IMO. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musée_d%27Orsay https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musée_d%27Orsay
cr1895 8y ago
The Guimet Asiatic art museum is pretty spectacular: http://www.guimet.fr/ http://www.guimet.fr/
mallomarmeasle 8y ago
Looks like it is currently closed, but from an interesting infrastructure standpoint, the Musée des Égouts de Paris (sewers underneath Paris). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Sewer_Museum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Sewer_Museum
garmaine 8y ago
The Louvre must be on any list.
gregschlom 8y ago
My favorite is La Cité des Sciences, although it's not really a museum but more of an exhibition place for all things related to science. Used to go there all the time as a kid, especially to read 2600 magazine in the library.
atombender 8y ago
The Pompidou Centre (Centre Georges Pompidou) [1]. It's technically not a single museum, but several, including the largest museum for modern art in Europe (Musée National d'Art Moderne) and IRCAM, which is about music and acoustic research. If you're into modern art and/or architecture, it's a must-see. The center itself is a beautiful mess of industrial design, and they have everything ranging from modern paintings to furniture to contemporary sculptures to technological inventions. Two of the current exhibitions are an installation by Ryoji Ikeda [2], which is one of the most superb audiovisual pieces I've seen (you sit in a completely dark room and watch a huge projection) and Coder Le Monde [3], a history of generative art (digital 2D and 3D, as well as physical), computer graphics and visualization. Both are fantastic. The nearby Palais de Tokyo is also fun, as is the Museum of Modern Art, which is next door to it. Everyone mentions the Louvre, but it is incredibly crowded and touristy, and the 90% of the paintings are portraits of 19th century nobility. The gardens surrounding the Louvre are much enjoyable than the inside, in my (possibly unpopular) opinion. [1] https://www.centrepompidou.fr/en https://www.centrepompidou.fr/en [2] https://www.centrepompidou.fr/cpv/agenda/event.action?param.id=FR_R-b17897412166108a75b9acb7bf345ee&param.idSource=FR_E-b17897412166108a75b9acb7bf345ee https://www.centrepompidou.fr/cpv/agenda/event.action?param.... [3] https://www.centrepompidou.fr/cpv/agenda/event.action?param.id=FR_R-ee6b22e72a6bbd1a92f6cfaceca117d&param.idSource=FR_E-ee6b22e72a6bbd1a92f6cfaceca117d https://www.centrepompidou.fr/cpv/agenda/event.action?param....

epicureanideal 8y ago

Is this the first documented instance of finding a bug in a computer program? That should be a more well known milestone in my opinion.

modernerd 8y ago
The author mentions that another blogger, Jim Randell, found the same error in 2015 when translating the tables to Python: https://enigmaticcode.wordpress.com/tag/bernoulli-numbers/ https://enigmaticcode.wordpress.com/tag/bernoulli-numbers/ It's also debated whether these were bugs from Ada or transcription errors. But, yes, it does seem like an interesting milestone
- adtac 8y ago
  >It's also debated whether these were bugs from Ada or transcription errors Transcription errors would make this the first bug due to bit rot in a special sense! Still quite remarkable :)
  - moomin 8y ago
    git blame a bit hard in this case.

haihaibye 8y ago

It was the first published program but not the first. To be the first, you have to believe Babbage designed a general purpose computer that could accept instructions and never wrote any instructions. https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/ada-lovelace-original-and-visionary-but-no-programmer/ https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/ada-lovelace-original-and-vi... “I confirm that the manuscript evidence clearly shows that Babbage wrote ‘programs’ for his Analytical Engine in 1836-7 i.e. 6-7 years before the publication of Lovelace’s article in 1843. There are about 24 of such ‘programs’ and they have the identical features of the Lovelace’s famous ‘program’,” adds Swade. The historian says that the new tests are “unarguable” and that they “do not support, indeed they contradict the claim that Lovelace was the ‘first programmer’.”

danielvf 8y ago
A group working on building an Analytical Engine, discovered that Lovelace’s Bernoulli program almost certainly would not be able to run on the Analytical Engine in Babbage’s notebooks. The “instruction set” was missing some required features. http://blog.plan28.org/2016/10/how-we-got-to-where-we-are.html http://blog.plan28.org/2016/10/how-we-got-to-where-we-are.ht...
- SiempreViernes 8y ago
  Better yet, that version didn’t have conditionals the user could employ at all, so it isn’t even a proper computer but rather a calculator.
- acqq 8y ago
  From what I understand, she clearly understood the limitations of what Babbage achieved and wrote her program to demonstrate the value of extending the hardware in order to run more universal "programs," like the one she writes! http://rclab.de/rclab/_media/analyticalengine/aal_noteg_glaschick_v1.2.pdf http://rclab.de/rclab/_media/analyticalengine/aal_noteg_glas... Also note that apparently Babbage later did consider exactly the implementation of the said missing hardware functionality: http://blog.plan28.org/2016/10/how-we-got-to-where-we-are.html?showComment=1475978550566#c4003280010770075340 http://blog.plan28.org/2016/10/how-we-got-to-where-we-are.ht...