15 Feb
2021
15 Feb
'21
5:35 a.m.
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> On Behalf Of osi.superboard
via cctalk
Sent: 15 February 2021 12:23
To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
Subject: Programming in 1946 - ENIAC's Birthday
75 years ago, February 15, 1946
The ENIAC, presented to the public in 1946, is - depending on the definition -
the first programmable digital computer in the world. Its first programmers
were primarily women: so-called refrigerator ladies (seen here: Gloria Ruth
Gordon and Ester Gerston) spent hours flipping switches and swapping cable
connections - the first computer input devices - to tell the programmable
digital computer what it has to do next.
If believe that Tom Haigh, Mark Priestley, and Crispin Rope showed that in June? 1948
ENIAC ran the first "Modern" electronic computer program....
They used the banks of switches originally intended to store variable parameters to store
the instructions so in effect the program was stored in a "prom" or
"rom"..
.. I would say the first "electronic programme". About a month later the
"Baby" in Manchester ran a program from RAM...
Once the machine was, I suppose "micro-coded" they seldom re-plugged it, but
simply put the program into the switches.
https://cdn1.vogel.de/unsafe/fit-
in/1000x0/images.vogel.de/vogelonline/bdb/1796600/1796642/original.jpg
Dave
G4UGM