Programming in 1946 - ENIAC's Birthday

[dave.g4ugm at gmail.com]

> -----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