Programming in 1946 - ENIAC's Birthday

[Paul Koning]

> On Feb 15, 2021, at 7:23 AM, osi.superboard via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> 
> 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 -

Not so much input devices as rather program storage devices.  ENIAC wasn't a stored-program machine.  And of course read-only program memories have a long history, going back to the Atanasoff-Berry digital computer years earlier, through the ROM of the Electrologica X1 and the Apollo Guidance Computer, to the deadstart panel toggle switch boot ROM of the CDC mainframes.

	paul