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I don't know. Women have always coded. I was taught assembler (my first programming job) by a woman. They have always been there (admittedly in smaller numbers

I don't know. Women have always coded. I was taught assembler (my first programming job) by a woman. They have always been there (admittedly in smaller numbers then men) but they have always struck me as being excellent coders. We have women like Ada Lovelace and Grace Murray Hopper as fine computing minds to emulate and admire. Women have always been able to take to coding in my experience and be first class at it. They tend to be good at languages -- better than men generally -- and that includes programming languages, too.

pjscott 15y ago
> Women have always been able to take to coding in my experience and be first class at it. When you say this, I'm not sure what you mean. Here are some possible interpretations: (a) Most women can be first-class programmers. (b) Among first-class programmers, some are women. (c) Some third thing?
- Craiggybear 15y ago
  All of the above. Probably.
mangodrunk 15y ago
Don't include Ada with Hopper as Ada didn't really contribute anything and she is incorrectly considered the first programmer. Hopper actually did something and she did influence the field.
- Craiggybear 15y ago
  That's simply not true. Countess Lovelace was a brilliant algorithmic wrangler. She was one of the first of her time to realise that any mathematically definable problem could be reduced to a series of true/false branches and that from that a machine (mechanical or electronic) would be able to make calculations of almost any type. She also was behind a lot of analysis of stuff like log table errors. This is probably more the definition of a Systems Analyst, but that job doesn't exist anymore, so we would regard her as a coder.
  - mangodrunk 15y ago
    That's simply not backed by evidence. It was Charles Babbage who most likely wrote the first "program" not to mention he created and thought of them without any help from her. Her role is greatly exaggerated and usually baseless. It's like if you credit me about with the invention of search technology if I say something like that will power the search of everything. If she were a man, I doubt we would be mentioning her, just like the man who her set of notes were based on (with the program done by Babbage in the appendix). Either way, it's not all that important as I don't think anyone in computer science was influenced by this work, Babbage included. He is a historical interest and ahead of his time.

pjscott 15y ago

> Women have always been able to take to coding in my experience and be first class at it. When you say this, I'm not sure what you mean. Here are some possible interpretations: (a) Most women can be first-class programmers. (b) Among first-class programmers, some are women. (c) Some third thing?

Craiggybear 15y ago
All of the above. Probably.

mangodrunk 15y ago

Don't include Ada with Hopper as Ada didn't really contribute anything and she is incorrectly considered the first programmer. Hopper actually did something and she did influence the field.

Craiggybear 15y ago
That's simply not true. Countess Lovelace was a brilliant algorithmic wrangler. She was one of the first of her time to realise that any mathematically definable problem could be reduced to a series of true/false branches and that from that a machine (mechanical or electronic) would be able to make calculations of almost any type. She also was behind a lot of analysis of stuff like log table errors. This is probably more the definition of a Systems Analyst, but that job doesn't exist anymore, so we would regard her as a coder.
- mangodrunk 15y ago
  That's simply not backed by evidence. It was Charles Babbage who most likely wrote the first "program" not to mention he created and thought of them without any help from her. Her role is greatly exaggerated and usually baseless. It's like if you credit me about with the invention of search technology if I say something like that will power the search of everything. If she were a man, I doubt we would be mentioning her, just like the man who her set of notes were based on (with the program done by Babbage in the appendix). Either way, it's not all that important as I don't think anyone in computer science was influenced by this work, Babbage included. He is a historical interest and ahead of his time.