One of the great stories about Grace Hopper was not just that she was a computing pioneer and genius. She was so valuable to the Navy that they kept her on active duty far past the time most officers would have been forced to retire. She was one of two "special cases" (the other was was Rickover).
Admiral Hopper should be on the $20, not that racist government-skeptic Jackson who wanted to destroy the Treasury and was responsible for the Trail of Tears.
Thank you! I'm a retired programmer (42 years) and thought I'd learned a lot in that time. After watching this, it's clear to me now that I know nothing. Every one who has ever written code should have to watch this video. I salute the women and the work they did to pave the way for future programmers like me. Thank you again for this video.
Military rank and honorifics are not used together. She would be referred to either as Rear Admiral Grace Hopper or Dr. Grace Hopper, either is acceptable in the civilian world, but only the rank is typically used in a military setting. Some exceptions can apply.
Plus Grace Hopper created the concept of a program "bug". They had a computer that wasn't working as it should and she found a moth smashed into one of the relays, taped it to the log book and noted she had found the bug that was causing the program to fail. She gave a talk in one of my classes when I was in graduate school at Tennessee Tech in the late 70's. She was a real hoot!
While I never heard Adm. Hopper speak, this is a bit of an urban legend. In the logbook, she wrote "First actual case of bug being found." The term "bug" had already been in use in engineering from the 1870s to refer to a glitch or defect, and while Adm. Hopper doesn't mention "debugging", that term was already current in aeronautical engineering, from where computing borrowed it, via the US military. She taped the moth to the logbook book in jest--if the term "bug" hadn't already been current, at the rate parts needed replacing, nobody would've understood or cared.
Yeah, NICE - not everybody has the interest nor the occupational obligation to invest their time memorizing the conventions that go into coding (specially in the early days of computing, when Java and stuff weren't around), but we're gonna go ahead and tacitly imply that's basically equivalent to being an idiot; truly classy...
@@thstroyur *sigh* ... vulnerable and feeling hurt are we? It _was_ nicely done. Equality means getting a bit of your own back, not that we have to protect you from your butthurts.
@@ValeriePallaoro "vulnerable and feeling hurt are we?" Speak for yourself, sweetums "Equality means" none of the bullcrap you were fed by your pet commie closet uni prof; the only rights that there are are human rights - anything else is a means to oppress others
Lots of women contributing to computing back in the days when most men dominated engineering and technical fields. Not only that but contributed huge milestones. I hope these ladies serve as inspiration for young women today to get into STEM fields as it's obvious we make greater leaps for all with both men and women in these fields.
I think alot of it was that Software wasn't considered as manly as Hardware was back in those days, So it was likely men were creating the machines, and building the machines, and the women worked on them. Even today, if you think there aren't enough women on the software end of programming, on the hardware end, it is even more sparse.
@@linuxman7777 no, the answer is actually in this very video. Programming started out calculating artillery trajectories during WW2. Men were drafted into the war and women were called to step up and take jobs they normally wouldn't have thought of doing. Hence why so many women were the first programmers. Programming fell out of favor with women because after the war the men came back and the women went back to their roles which at the time was taking care of the house and family.
@@matthewlozy1140 No. The correct answer is in the video. Women were the human-computers (or, at the time, just “computers”) so it seemed logical to have them program the electronic ones, and this was a common job for women well before WWII. In the late 60s, a concerted (and disappointingly effective) effort was made to push women out of the industry. Some have blamed this on colleges, which only started granting CS degrees around this time, many of which did not accept female students.
@@dalesheldon-hess552 Well spotted. This 'women went back to their roles' myth creates a sad view of womenhood of the time. We did have the opportunity (as a nation) to accept the equality that had been granted in times of hardship, but some feared the change and pushed back. It has taken years to make up for that. And now we have a lack of females in STEM which clearly they are suited too. Not everyone can, but everyone who can should have the opportunity.
I knew about the eniac six, and admiral grace hooper, but the others where new to me, will try to remember their contributions! Also, didn't know about that efficient trick at 6:33 to save punchcards order, so simple and efficient!
@@benjaminclehmann i see, thanks, but seems like it would actually be harder to quickly sort the stack using that than using the mark on the border. Though a number is certainly better for disambiguation.
Now hold on there minute, do you mean Admiral Hopper? Forced to retire from the Navy due to age, then recalled within less than a year, retiring 19 years later at 79? That badass Grace Hopper? Yeah, she was awesome. Anyone in the Navy knows about her.
@@erraticonteuse He should be at the top. He is the father of modern computer science. That is why the Nobel prize equivalent of Computer Science is called the Turing Award.
@@DervishD Because this channel has already done several separate videos on him? Because he was played by Benedict Cumberbatch in an Oscar-nominated film? Because he's on the £50 note? Or in other words, he's a very mainstream figure these days and the point of this video was to highlight lesser-known people and accomplishments?
@@erraticonteuse But the title of the video is "5 Computer Scientists Who Changed Programming Forever", not "5 Lesser Known Computer Scientists Who Changed Programming Forever But Nobody Did A Film About Them With A Famous Actor In It". I'm sorry but I can't agree with you in the point of this video being highlighting lesser known people, because that was not what I expected from the title or even from the first persons mentioned in the video
ENIAC was not the first "General purpose" electronic computer. That honour goes to Colossus. While it's true that Bletchley Park only used Colossus for deducing the daily settings of the German code machines in WW2, its architecture allowed for the possibility of more general operations. In fact, ENIAC was largely based on Colossus, with the addition of a whole bucket load of refinements.
Sad to see, that the fact, that the Zuse Z3 was the first digital computer is neglected :-( But that's the only downside of this super interesting view of early computer history and giving credit to those who shaped it! Good work!
@@bixmcgoo5355 Harsh. The Z3 was destroyed so I get your point. The narrator does say that Eniac was first, perhaps just from the Wiki entry, which is disputed in part because Eniac was completed after Colossus became operational. A visit to Bletchley Park has it that Colossus was first. Wiki has it that Eniac was first but also that Colossus was first. Eniac was certainly bigger and maybe started earlier, with Colossus operational earlier and the more important at the time for obvious reasons.
Z3 lacked the branching operation, so it was kind of a programmable calculator. Other than that, yeah, Germany's achievements in tech and science before 1945 are amazing.
I took two Computer Programming courses in college in 1969 and learned Fortran, Cobol, and PL-1. Then in 1971 while I was in graduate school, I worked as a student assistant operator at the University Computer Center annex in the Engineering building. I was impressed with how many women computer science majors there were, far more than in any engineering field. Two years later I worked as a programmer for the US Dept. of Commerce Computer Center in Washington DC. Although all the managers were men, exactly half of the 20 member Programming Staff were women (non of them Asians). But something happened during the later 1970s and 1980s. When my two sons were in fifth and sixth grades, I started a computer club for them a one of their friends. I decided we needed some girls too, so I asked the Fifth and Sixth Grade teachers to nominate a couple of girls who were really good in math. One name they gave me was the daughter of a woman who served on the PTA board with me. I approached her with the idea, which she thought was great, and offered to speak with her daughter. The daughter rejected it outright, claiming that if the other girls found out she was hanging out with computer nerds, they would never speak to her again.
Having been in the field during the 1960's I can tell you categorically. IBM was not cutting edge ever. The company was a huge marketing machine and gained all the credit while other companies who focused on the science of design and building cutting edge machines did the work but did not get the credit. Do the research on S. Craig. A true unsung hero in designing super computers.
I agree with about Seymour Craig - the CDC and Cray computers he designed were world-changing in their speed, but the IBM System/360 was a leader in its field.
In Capitalism that's how things work. It doesn't matter if the product is the best one put there. Only thing that matters is how much cash you put into adds and convince the masses who have either no or very little background in science.
FORTRAN predated A-O and Flowmatic and saying FORTRAN required you to be "an expert in mathematics" is a stretch way beyond credulity. I learned to program FORTRAN when I was in 9th grade in the 70's and I promise you I was not an expert in mathematics.
0:55 ENIAC was designed to calculate ballistic trajectories during WWII. That's an unfortunate phrasing. It was designed during WWII but one might think it calculated during it or it was only ready in December 1945, after the end of the war.
Choosing to highlight five women that contributed to computer programming is a good idea but isolating this list to only include women without saying that was what you were doing seems disingenuous. Certainly there are men who contributed to computer programming whose name will never be know as well, you title seems to imply that there were not.
I don't think you need to tell somebody doing a video about 10 women that leaving one half of the population out of historical narratives gives an inaccurate impression of history. That's _kinda_ the whole argument for teaching women's history in the first place.
@@erraticonteuse But if the that is what the topic is about, name it that! Not only that but the video did not present the true facts about the programming languages that were discussed. I do appreciate the women who contributed to programming in the past and also contribute in the present (I have worked with many). I think they stand up just fine without the revisionism.
@@connecticutaggie Yes; most of this revisionism blows up relatively smaller contributions to the field, making it seem that _anything_ any woman ever did in CS was "grounbreaking" and "revolutionary", compared with the accomplishments of their male colleagues. But, nope - can't talk 'bout merit, 'cuz if you do, you're being a manbaby! Tuff nutz, eh?
I saw the title, and immediately thought of Lynn Conway, one of my own favorite "legendary computer developers". While i was disappointed to not see her here, i got to admit, these women did the impossible!
I approached this film with some misgivings, but kudos to you. You have made an opinionated selection of the greats of the early days of computing, that does not comprise the usual suspects. As for Grace Hopper, I seem to recall she carried "microseconds" in her handbag as gifts for people she met. These were lengths of cable that an electrical signal would take one microsecond to traverse.
Funny, since you can enable voice input on a smart phone, if it isn't already, and set your phone's wake word to "Computer". Ask it how to make transparent aluminum, and you'll get results both real and Star Trek. If you want to have your pocket computer speak back to you, make sure you enable that.
You forgot that Admiral Hopper termed the phrase "debugged". As the story goes she was working on the Mk-2 and noticed it wasn't working right. Upon closer inspection she found a (dead) moth in it. She wrote about it in her journal and tapes the moth next to the words "it has been debugged". That journal is in the Smithsonian.
If only the unfortunately masculine "computer nerd" stereotype wasn't popularized in the early 80s and 90s, maybe there would be more women in the tech industry today. As we can see woman certainly had no problem finding success in this industry before that.
More people should know about these programmers. Knowing how much women contributed to computer science back in the day would inspire more girls to get into STEM fields.
Fantastic, Hoppers lecture on the definition of the nanosecond is perfect. All of these women helped get us here today. Amazing mathematicians and programmers all.
Great video, thank you. The second or third computer l learnt was COBOL. I thought I knew computing history but I only new one of these stories. Thanks for teaching me more about these amazing achievements and people.
How did we got from women being employed as computers who worked with multivariable calculus and differential equations, to women not being good at math? How did we get from women being the first computer programmers to women not being good computer programmers? If any young women out there are reading this and wondering if they should take that calculus class in high school, the answer is yes! Should you apply to a computer science program for college? YES! Do what you want to do and don't let anyone tell you that you can't do it because you're a women!
Your photo at 1:23 says "Not Pictured: Marlyn Wescoff Meltzer", yet she's standing just below that caption, to the right of Ruth Lichterman Teitelbaum.
@@hiphopguy0 The early world of programming was very female dominated because crunching numbers and writing programs was considered a female career, much like most nurses or secretaries at the time were women. This is a basic fact about the history of computer science that is explained literally in the first few minutes of the video. Hell, they even mentioned Kathleen Booth and her husband Andrew Booth- they worked as a team where he designed the machines (considered men's work at the time) and she designed the programs that ran on them (considered women's work at the time). It takes like two seconds to google this stuff, come on.
@@dinf8940 I dunno, I'm pretty sure Grace Hopper was an exceptional human being. The real problem is the notion that she's forgotten just because people like Alan Turing have more film-worthy lives. Grace Hopper is absolutely not underappreciated in the history of computer science.
I would love to know what ENIAC sounded like. I imagine a loud hum. To be a fly on the wall the day those Human Computers (awesome name) were introduced to such a enormous thing. Must have been very intimidating.
Wow! Learning that Machine translation dates back as far as it does just blew my mind. I love that this video showcases women. Good work guys Hahahhahha "The military official and business men she was working with didn't have the bandwidth" Ahahhahhaha Well put I'm going to start throwing that around at work.
My dad was a dev back in the punch card days and I am one now. He's much better at math and all that than me (perfect scores/#1 ranking in national tests/exams). But I'm capable of much more as a programmer due to the people featured here. Much thanks!
Maybe it was different when you commented, but the title begins with "5 Computer Scientists" now. No mention of "top," just a selection of five, which indisputably changed programming.
I do not understand how this can be called a "personal computer." One article I read called it the first mini computer and another called it a personal computer. Personal computers are much smaller than this (Not counting the large vertical stand) and cost an amount that an average person could afford.
All women. Fantastic. Also, Rear Admiral Grace Hopper to give her title. So important is she to Naval and Computer history that the USS Hopper DDG-70 was named for her. She (the ship) was the first US Navy ship to be built with co-ed quarters.
Nice to hear women receiving acknowledgement in programming and development. I am a female programmer (have been for decades) and it's very hard for women to get the nod.
A lot of the early work was considered women's work because it was similar to operating a telephone switchboard, and other delicate attention to detail work
I feel like it's the other way around. It's not surprising at all how instrumental women have been to computer science, especially when you consider that women like Ada Lovelace have been programming computers since *before computers actually existed.* That's astonishing is how pervasive the tech-bro sexism has become.
I thumb my nose at anyone who claims women aren't capable of tech work. Fine examples of not only capable, but genius at least equal to the men we regularly celebrate for their contributions.
"I thumb my nose at anyone who claims women aren't capable of tech work" Like who? Seriously - _who_ the hell says that? Truly, just like heartburn, feminism is the gift that keeps on giving...
Luv you guys, but why the opacity? Why not just say "5 important women in Programming" Or "women you might not have heard of". Orrrrrrr the entire pool of early programmers was made up of women.. not sure yet.
@@erraticonteuse yes. I agree. But the word people includes men AND women. This ep was all women. Not a problem. And i was kinda trying to joke a lil in a sarcastic way. :) my only point is they could have heralded that it was all women. That was all. Or have included an obscure computer scientist that was male. Since the episode was "computer scientists who changed programming forever" and not "5 women who changed computer programming forever" :)
surprised to hear COBOL is "still in use today" - this was the primary source of the "y2k bug" and the reason why everyone was freaking out in 1999 - as a bunch of computer systems were going to reset dates from 1999 to 1900 - instead of 2000 - because they ran COBOL - which only uses 2 digits for the year...
Thank you for choosing to highlight ten _women_ who were pioneers in computing. The pivotal roles women played in laying the foundations of computer science have been overlooked and underappreciated for too long.
One of the great stories about Grace Hopper was not just that she was a computing pioneer and genius. She was so valuable to the Navy that they kept her on active duty far past the time most officers would have been forced to retire. She was one of two "special cases" (the other was was Rickover).
"Active-Retired" was her duty status :). I heard her speak when I was an undergrad. Just an amazing woman, amazing presenter.
And the rank of Admiral!
@@CritterKeeper01 Grace was amazing. She is reputed for coining the term "debugging" which we still use today.
Admiral Hopper should be on the $20, not that racist government-skeptic Jackson who wanted to destroy the Treasury and was responsible for the Trail of Tears.
*Admiral Hopper
Thank you! I'm a retired programmer (42 years) and thought I'd learned a lot in that time. After watching this, it's clear to me now that I know nothing. Every one who has ever written code should have to watch this video. I salute the women and the work they did to pave the way for future programmers like me. Thank you again for this video.
Don't forget, the very first computer programmer was a women, Countess Lovelace, daughter of poet Lord Byron
Ahem, *Rear Admiral* Dr. Grace Hopper. Also, the US Navy lobbied Congress *twice* to grant her an exception to the mandatory retirement age.
was gonna post this if i didn't find it, lol
@@fishergabe I only wish that "Rear Admiral" had not replaced the title of "Commodore", because the pun possibilities would have been endless!
Military nuts can use whatever title they want, but the one that matters in the scientific community is that she had a doctorate.
Military rank and honorifics are not used together. She would be referred to either as Rear Admiral Grace Hopper or Dr. Grace Hopper, either is acceptable in the civilian world, but only the rank is typically used in a military setting. Some exceptions can apply.
@@erraticonteuse 😂 I love puns, but I’m not a gamester, so your comment took me a minute to process.
Plus Grace Hopper created the concept of a program "bug". They had a computer that wasn't working as it should and she found a moth smashed into one of the relays, taped it to the log book and noted she had found the bug that was causing the program to fail. She gave a talk in one of my classes when I was in graduate school at Tennessee Tech in the late 70's. She was a real hoot!
While I never heard Adm. Hopper speak, this is a bit of an urban legend. In the logbook, she wrote "First actual case of bug being found." The term "bug" had already been in use in engineering from the 1870s to refer to a glitch or defect, and while Adm. Hopper doesn't mention "debugging", that term was already current in aeronautical engineering, from where computing borrowed it, via the US military. She taped the moth to the logbook book in jest--if the term "bug" hadn't already been current, at the rate parts needed replacing, nobody would've understood or cared.
As a software engineer who's a huge fan, I love seeing comp sci topics here!
"Didn't have the bandwidth" NICE
Some not so subtle man shaming there from Rose 🤣
@@dancingvirgil Yeah - because "man shaming" isn't something to frown upon, these days, because "progress"; SMFH...
Yeah, NICE - not everybody has the interest nor the occupational obligation to invest their time memorizing the conventions that go into coding (specially in the early days of computing, when Java and stuff weren't around), but we're gonna go ahead and tacitly imply that's basically equivalent to being an idiot; truly classy...
@@thstroyur *sigh* ... vulnerable and feeling hurt are we? It _was_ nicely done. Equality means getting a bit of your own back, not that we have to protect you from your butthurts.
@@ValeriePallaoro "vulnerable and feeling hurt are we?" Speak for yourself, sweetums
"Equality means" none of the bullcrap you were fed by your pet commie closet uni prof; the only rights that there are are human rights - anything else is a means to oppress others
It looks like Kathleen Booth is still alive and just turned 99 (!)
Good thing she predates COBOL, or she might rollover to 00
A lot of the Eniac six only passed away recently, computer science is such a new field
@@sundhaug92 😆👍 That's a good one! Always appreciate a good 'nerd joke'!
If so, an interview might be quite cool! (Don't know if sci-show would do something like that, but the computerphile channel maybe?
@@MeriaDuck Tom Scott maybe, he did interview a 90 something year old scientist recently.
Lots of women contributing to computing back in the days when most men dominated engineering and technical fields. Not only that but contributed huge milestones. I hope these ladies serve as inspiration for young women today to get into STEM fields as it's obvious we make greater leaps for all with both men and women in these fields.
What about the dewy Decimal system
I think alot of it was that Software wasn't considered as manly as Hardware was back in those days, So it was likely men were creating the machines, and building the machines, and the women worked on them. Even today, if you think there aren't enough women on the software end of programming, on the hardware end, it is even more sparse.
@@linuxman7777 no, the answer is actually in this very video. Programming started out calculating artillery trajectories during WW2. Men were drafted into the war and women were called to step up and take jobs they normally wouldn't have thought of doing. Hence why so many women were the first programmers. Programming fell out of favor with women because after the war the men came back and the women went back to their roles which at the time was taking care of the house and family.
@@matthewlozy1140 No. The correct answer is in the video.
Women were the human-computers (or, at the time, just “computers”) so it seemed logical to have them program the electronic ones, and this was a common job for women well before WWII.
In the late 60s, a concerted (and disappointingly effective) effort was made to push women out of the industry. Some have blamed this on colleges, which only started granting CS degrees around this time, many of which did not accept female students.
@@dalesheldon-hess552 Well spotted. This 'women went back to their roles' myth creates a sad view of womenhood of the time. We did have the opportunity (as a nation) to accept the equality that had been granted in times of hardship, but some feared the change and pushed back. It has taken years to make up for that. And now we have a lack of females in STEM which clearly they are suited too. Not everyone can, but everyone who can should have the opportunity.
I knew about the eniac six, and admiral grace hooper, but the others where new to me, will try to remember their contributions!
Also, didn't know about that efficient trick at 6:33 to save punchcards order, so simple and efficient!
Some of the fancier keypunches would stamp or punch a number on all of the cards so that you could keep them in order.
@@benjaminclehmann i see, thanks, but seems like it would actually be harder to quickly sort the stack using that than using the mark on the border. Though a number is certainly better for disambiguation.
@@GabrielPettier Some of them could be sorted by machine based off of the number stamped/punched into them
@@benjaminclehmann Ah right of course, machines for all the boring things :D
And it’s efficient too!
Shoutout to all my fellow software engineers.
Code gang
@@blackcitadel37 What is your stack?
as a guy, all I wanna say is thank you for shining a light on these underappreciated women of computer history!
I'm a programmer but I don't know these people lol, thanks for the video scishow!
Now hold on there minute, do you mean Admiral Hopper? Forced to retire from the Navy due to age, then recalled within less than a year, retiring 19 years later at 79? That badass Grace Hopper? Yeah, she was awesome. Anyone in the Navy knows about her.
When you think about it, programmers are just the computer version of Dr. Dolittle.
Where is Alan Turing..?
On the £50 note, i.e. too famous for this list.
@@erraticonteuse He should be at the top. He is the father of modern computer science. That is why the Nobel prize equivalent of Computer Science is called the Turing Award.
I'd say it totally beats me, but I think we both know why he is not here...
@@DervishD Because this channel has already done several separate videos on him? Because he was played by Benedict Cumberbatch in an Oscar-nominated film? Because he's on the £50 note? Or in other words, he's a very mainstream figure these days and the point of this video was to highlight lesser-known people and accomplishments?
@@erraticonteuse But the title of the video is "5 Computer Scientists Who Changed Programming Forever", not "5 Lesser Known Computer Scientists Who Changed Programming Forever But Nobody Did A Film About Them With A Famous Actor In It". I'm sorry but I can't agree with you in the point of this video being highlighting lesser known people, because that was not what I expected from the title or even from the first persons mentioned in the video
Copy & paste feature is the best feature of Tech history 🙂
Elite
ENIAC was not the first "General purpose" electronic computer.
That honour goes to Colossus.
While it's true that Bletchley Park only used Colossus for deducing the daily settings of the German code machines in WW2, its architecture allowed for the possibility of more general operations. In fact, ENIAC was largely based on Colossus, with the addition of a whole bucket load of refinements.
If you want credit for “first”, you need to declassify its existence sooner ;)
(Or at least before “common knowledge” has calcified on the issue.)
@@dalesheldon-hess552 - It's not about credit, exactly. It's about accuracy of information presented as fact.
Sad to see, that the fact, that the Zuse Z3 was the first digital computer is neglected :-(
But that's the only downside of this super interesting view of early computer history and giving credit to those who shaped it! Good work!
The title of the video isn't "five unrelated but important details in computer history" so what the hell did you expect?
@@bixmcgoo5355 Harsh. The Z3 was destroyed so I get your point. The narrator does say that Eniac was first, perhaps just from the Wiki entry, which is disputed in part because Eniac was completed after Colossus became operational. A visit to Bletchley Park has it that Colossus was first. Wiki has it that Eniac was first but also that Colossus was first. Eniac was certainly bigger and maybe started earlier, with Colossus operational earlier and the more important at the time for obvious reasons.
I think they missed to add "american" to the title.
@@molybdaen11 and 'female'
Z3 lacked the branching operation, so it was kind of a programmable calculator. Other than that, yeah, Germany's achievements in tech and science before 1945 are amazing.
I took two Computer Programming courses in college in 1969 and learned Fortran, Cobol, and PL-1. Then in 1971 while I was in graduate school, I worked as a student assistant operator at the University Computer Center annex in the Engineering building. I was impressed with how many women computer science majors there were, far more than in any engineering field. Two years later I worked as a programmer for the US Dept. of Commerce Computer Center in Washington DC. Although all the managers were men, exactly half of the 20 member Programming Staff were women (non of them Asians).
But something happened during the later 1970s and 1980s. When my two sons were in fifth and sixth grades, I started a computer club for them a one of their friends. I decided we needed some girls too, so I asked the Fifth and Sixth Grade teachers to nominate a couple of girls who were really good in math. One name they gave me was the daughter of a woman who served on the PTA board with me. I approached her with the idea, which she thought was great, and offered to speak with her daughter. The daughter rejected it outright, claiming that if the other girls found out she was hanging out with computer nerds, they would never speak to her again.
Alan Turing has always been my personal hero
I'm glad they put him on the new £50 note
He's on my long list of heroes /herorines
Unfortunately British society didn't see him that way
@@bri1085 Oh, he is getting a pound note come Sept
@Stephen Coleman yes he was, too bad someone took advantage of that
"Do I even need to say anything?"
I love it haha
Having been in the field during the 1960's I can tell you categorically. IBM was not cutting edge ever. The company was a huge marketing machine and gained all the credit while other companies who focused on the science of design and building cutting edge machines did the work but did not get the credit. Do the research on S. Craig. A true unsung hero in designing super computers.
I agree with about Seymour Craig - the CDC and Cray computers he designed were world-changing in their speed, but the IBM System/360 was a leader in its field.
Sounds like modern Apple.
In Capitalism that's how things work. It doesn't matter if the product is the best one put there. Only thing that matters is how much cash you put into adds and convince the masses who have either no or very little background in science.
FORTRAN predated A-O and Flowmatic and saying FORTRAN required you to be "an expert in mathematics" is a stretch way beyond credulity. I learned to program FORTRAN when I was in 9th grade in the 70's and I promise you I was not an expert in mathematics.
FORTRAN was my first introduction to programming, during the mid 60's. Do you remember the IBM 1620?
@@charlessmith6412 That was a bit before I started programming. I started in 1971 on a CDC6600 when I was a Freshman in High School.
0:55 ENIAC was designed to calculate ballistic trajectories during WWII.
That's an unfortunate phrasing. It was designed during WWII but one might think it calculated during it or it was only ready in December 1945, after the end of the war.
Choosing to highlight five women that contributed to computer programming is a good idea but isolating this list to only include women without saying that was what you were doing seems disingenuous. Certainly there are men who contributed to computer programming whose name will never be know as well, you title seems to imply that there were not.
Awww. Someone needs a tissue.
I don't think you need to tell somebody doing a video about 10 women that leaving one half of the population out of historical narratives gives an inaccurate impression of history. That's _kinda_ the whole argument for teaching women's history in the first place.
@@erraticonteuse But if the that is what the topic is about, name it that! Not only that but the video did not present the true facts about the programming languages that were discussed. I do appreciate the women who contributed to programming in the past and also contribute in the present (I have worked with many). I think they stand up just fine without the revisionism.
@@connecticutaggie Yes; most of this revisionism blows up relatively smaller contributions to the field, making it seem that _anything_ any woman ever did in CS was "grounbreaking" and "revolutionary", compared with the accomplishments of their male colleagues. But, nope - can't talk 'bout merit, 'cuz if you do, you're being a manbaby! Tuff nutz, eh?
I saw the title, and immediately thought of Lynn Conway, one of my own favorite "legendary computer developers". While i was disappointed to not see her here, i got to admit, these women did the impossible!
Rose is getting so good at hosting! She's a great addition to the show. =)
She is more fluid now
I approached this film with some misgivings, but kudos to you. You have made an opinionated selection of the greats of the early days of computing, that does not comprise the usual suspects. As for Grace Hopper, I seem to recall she carried "microseconds" in her handbag as gifts for people she met. These were lengths of cable that an electrical signal would take one microsecond to traverse.
A nanosecond, rather, which is jut shorter than a foot. A microsecond would be something around 300 meters!
@@aelolul She has one of those, too, which she'd bring to lectures!
Just want to say that I love Rose Bear Don't Walk's diction. The intonation and cadence is really awesome for my attention span.
Fascinating, and I learned quite a bit. Thank you for sharing this knowledge with us.
And yet to this day I can't pick up a mouse and say "computer?" and have it explain to me how I can make transparent aluminum.
That’s because you haven’t said aluminium.
Just use the keyboard.
@@aelolul - How quaint.
Funny, since you can enable voice input on a smart phone, if it isn't already, and set your phone's wake word to "Computer". Ask it how to make transparent aluminum, and you'll get results both real and Star Trek. If you want to have your pocket computer speak back to you, make sure you enable that.
@@ray_mck You had me at "Funny"
You forgot that Admiral Hopper termed the phrase "debugged". As the story goes she was working on the Mk-2 and noticed it wasn't working right. Upon closer inspection she found a (dead) moth in it. She wrote about it in her journal and tapes the moth next to the words "it has been debugged". That journal is in the Smithsonian.
Great video, informative, concise and a story well worth telling.
If only the unfortunately masculine "computer nerd" stereotype wasn't popularized in the early 80s and 90s, maybe there would be more women in the tech industry today. As we can see woman certainly had no problem finding success in this industry before that.
every advancement industry has had that phase before it broke through sadly
It's not just computing that has that issue - engineering has been a stereotypically male field since long before then.
omg im a software engineer and this video makes me soo happy!! Even happier with Rose hosting!
Do you know what happened to the other girl used to host episode on scishow, the one with nose piercing?
@@aps125 no idea :(
More people should know about these programmers. Knowing how much women contributed to computer science back in the day would inspire more girls to get into STEM fields.
Fantastic, Hoppers lecture on the definition of the nanosecond is perfect. All of these women helped get us here today. Amazing mathematicians and programmers all.
You missed Ada Lovelace and Linus Torvalds, but at least you got Hopper in there, good job overall.
no mention of Dennis Ritchie or Bjarne Stroustrup
How is it possible you could have left out the Atanasoff-Berry computer and it's inventor?
Only 5 slots I guess.
That's REAR ADMIRAL Dr. Grace Hopper to you.
Great video, thank you. The second or third computer l learnt was COBOL. I thought I knew computing history but I only new one of these stories. Thanks for teaching me more about these amazing achievements and people.
How did we got from women being employed as computers who worked with multivariable calculus and differential equations, to women not being good at math? How did we get from women being the first computer programmers to women not being good computer programmers? If any young women out there are reading this and wondering if they should take that calculus class in high school, the answer is yes! Should you apply to a computer science program for college? YES! Do what you want to do and don't let anyone tell you that you can't do it because you're a women!
Your photo at 1:23 says "Not Pictured: Marlyn Wescoff Meltzer", yet she's standing just below that caption, to the right of Ruth Lichterman Teitelbaum.
Never knew there were so many women in computer science that basically made today's technology!
Its amazing what cherry picked examples can show you!
@@hiphopguy0 The early world of programming was very female dominated because crunching numbers and writing programs was considered a female career, much like most nurses or secretaries at the time were women. This is a basic fact about the history of computer science that is explained literally in the first few minutes of the video. Hell, they even mentioned Kathleen Booth and her husband Andrew Booth- they worked as a team where he designed the machines (considered men's work at the time) and she designed the programs that ran on them (considered women's work at the time).
It takes like two seconds to google this stuff, come on.
@@jasper3706 I don't think fact-checking is this bloke's strong suit mate, they're just looking for an argument.
probably cause they didnt, its just modern retconning and shoehorning of second rate assistants as engineers
@@dinf8940 I dunno, I'm pretty sure Grace Hopper was an exceptional human being. The real problem is the notion that she's forgotten just because people like Alan Turing have more film-worthy lives. Grace Hopper is absolutely not underappreciated in the history of computer science.
I would love to know what ENIAC sounded like. I imagine a loud hum. To be a fly on the wall the day those Human Computers (awesome name) were introduced to such a enormous thing. Must have been very intimidating.
It's crazy to think every gate switches that used to be manually connected with cables in 1945 is now nanoscale size inside a microprocessor.
Thanks to the transistor. Changed wiring and actual switches to software.
Compilers are the coolest machines. Big fan of Fran Allen.
Compilers aren't machines, except in a trivial sense.
Wow! Learning that Machine translation dates back as far as it does just blew my mind. I love that this video showcases women. Good work guys
Hahahhahha "The military official and business men she was working with didn't have the bandwidth" Ahahhahhaha Well put
I'm going to start throwing that around at work.
My dad was a dev back in the punch card days and I am one now. He's much better at math and all that than me (perfect scores/#1 ranking in national tests/exams). But I'm capable of much more as a programmer due to the people featured here. Much thanks!
great list! thank you
I work in client architecture and I couldn't do my job today without these amazing people
Genuine question. The top 5 most influential computer scientists are all women?
Not even close.
Maybe it was different when you commented, but the title begins with "5 Computer Scientists" now. No mention of "top," just a selection of five, which indisputably changed programming.
Thanks for this, of the people you listed I knew only about Hopper!
Basically, these are the people who gave me a way to pay my bills and put food on the table then. Thanks ya legends!
Amazing work ladies !
Wilkes? Booth? Sounds oddly... familiar...
...and worked in MIT's Lincoln labs? Coinkydink, I'm sure.
I do not understand how this can be called a "personal computer." One article I read called it the first mini computer and another called it a personal computer. Personal computers are much smaller than this (Not counting the large vertical stand) and cost an amount that an average person could afford.
All women. Fantastic.
Also, Rear Admiral Grace Hopper to give her title. So important is she to Naval and Computer history that the USS Hopper DDG-70 was named for her. She (the ship) was the first US Navy ship to be built with co-ed quarters.
Looking at my game programming colleagues and our job application candidates I get why this video was made :-)
What about the dewy decimal system
What about it? It's a library classification system
No mention of John Carmack?
Also, surely it's not a coincidence that this video was posted on the first anniversary of Frances E. Allen's death?
Show, don't tell. It's a video and not an audio book. Why aren't you showing us LAP6, for example?
Great episode! More like this please.
How do You Design a Programming Language?
How do You Design a Programming Language Using Binary Code (0's and 1's)?
Any language used bye the IRS in 1960 is likely still in use today, by the IRS.
Okay video. Thanks for uploading!
Nice to hear women receiving acknowledgement in programming and development. I am a female programmer (have been for decades) and it's very hard for women to get the nod.
Was one of the qualification for being a "human computer" having a name that was solid to pronounce?
Andrew Booth wasn't only a partner, he was Kathleen Booth's husband (I presumed from the surnames and googled to confirm). Why wasn't that mentioned?
I never knew so amazing women in computer science! Wish I knew about them when I was younger
I love the host Rose 😊
Given the tech-bro and geek-dude cultures we have seen for decades, it is astonishing how many women were foundational in creating modern computers.
A lot of the early work was considered women's work because it was similar to operating a telephone switchboard, and other delicate attention to detail work
Early computer science was not especially male I think. At least not until parents started gifting PCs to their male kids
I feel like it's the other way around. It's not surprising at all how instrumental women have been to computer science, especially when you consider that women like Ada Lovelace have been programming computers since *before computers actually existed.* That's astonishing is how pervasive the tech-bro sexism has become.
This is really cool
No Dennis Ritchie? Shame
She could assemble my language
I wonder if the 2nd Iconic programmer was a member of the Bletchly Circle?
Great video!
That was fascinating. I was expecting Ada Lovelace and a bunch of men, but I'd never actually heard about any of these dope women before.
If it was programmers well known I have a guess that Linus Torvalds would be on the list. But the people on the list are more impressive
Bravo! Well done.
Science!
I was legitimately hoping John Carmack would be on this list
I thumb my nose at anyone who claims women aren't capable of tech work.
Fine examples of not only capable, but genius at least equal to the men we regularly celebrate for their contributions.
"I thumb my nose at anyone who claims women aren't capable of tech work" Like who? Seriously - _who_ the hell says that? Truly, just like heartburn, feminism is the gift that keeps on giving...
Luv you guys, but why the opacity? Why not just say "5 important women in Programming" Or "women you might not have heard of". Orrrrrrr the entire pool of early programmers was made up of women.. not sure yet.
Women are people too.
@@erraticonteuse No duh
@@erraticonteuse yes. I agree. But the word people includes men AND women. This ep was all women. Not a problem. And i was kinda trying to joke a lil in a sarcastic way. :) my only point is they could have heralded that it was all women. That was all. Or have included an obscure computer scientist that was male. Since the episode was "computer scientists who changed programming forever" and not "5 women who changed computer programming forever" :)
Thanks for mentioning Linux.
surprised to hear COBOL is "still in use today" - this was the primary source of the "y2k bug" and the reason why everyone was freaking out in 1999 - as a bunch of computer systems were going to reset dates from 1999 to 1900 - instead of 2000 - because they ran COBOL - which only uses 2 digits for the year...
COBOL didn't use two digits the year. Programmers who used COBOL - and lots of other languages - used two digits for the year.
Thank you for choosing to highlight ten _women_ who were pioneers in computing. The pivotal roles women played in laying the foundations of computer science have been overlooked and underappreciated for too long.
fascinating! i love this.
Robert Pick...
Ah, Databasic, Procs and Group Format Errors. I remember them well.
Umm, how hard is it to just say Andrew Booth was Dr. Kathleen Booth's husband?
Because this video is about seeming woke so they have to use woke words like "partner" instead of husband or wife.
ENIAC was not a computer (by the accepted modern definition). And stop saying "partner", the word you are struggling with is "Husband"
What about Turing himself he helped design build and program COLOSSIS the mechanical computer that decoded ENIGMA!
you didn't see the pattern ? Turing was the wrong gender
Did anyone else just look at the thumbnail and think this video was going to be about like the origin of the save button icon?
Thank you ladies, you're a better person than I am, thanks for future fun
What about bors law
That was by a man, so not much chance of being recognised as a significant achievement in this new woke world!
0:18
Anything on hardware engineers?
The programmers wouldn't have anything to program without hardware.
Just curious; what's the point of referring to Andrew Booth as Kathleen Booth's "partner" when he was in fact her husband?
So can we say Britten was the world's 1st boothable pendrive. 😅