Von Neumann's First Computer Program (1970)

Still throws me that “order” here means something like “instruction” as in “that’s an order, lieutenant!” and “code” means something like “set,” as in “legal code” or “code of conduct.”

“Program” however is already used here by Knuth in more of the contemporary sense, though I gather in the time of ENIAC and EDVAC, a “program” was more narrowly the sequence of operations that implemented an order/instruction.

What I love most about all this, though, is how much of the machine you can see in the algorithm and the programming. You can almost visualize the vacuum tubes turning on and off in response to these instructions, which themselves would have been electrical pulses arranged into patterns according to the positions of a bunch of Bakelite switches. Just amazing.

Well, out of all people it was von Neumann, who at six years old could divide eight-digit numbers in his head, and who even his fellow "Martians" [1] speculated might not be merely human.

"I have sometimes wondered whether a brain like von Neumann’s does not indicate a species superior to that of man." – Hans Bethe

"von Neumann would carry on a conversation with my 3-year-old son, and the two of them would talk as equals, and I sometimes wondered if he used the same principle when he talked to the rest of us." – Edward Teller

“There was a seminar for advanced students in Zürich that I was teaching and von Neumann was in the class. I came to a certain theorem, and I said it is not proved and it may be difficult. von Neumann didn’t say anything but after five minutes he raised his hand. When I called on him he went to the blackboard and proceeded to write down the proof. After that I was afraid of von Neumann” – George Pólya

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martians_(scientists)

Back in the 90s, I read "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess," which he didn't write. It was published in the 60s. I can recall finding it strange how the author goes through the effort to explain what a program was within the context of his book, as though it didn't normally mean what I already understood it to mean.

“[John von Neumann] probably never intended to have this program published and subjected to such scrutiny; although his manuscript is carefully documented, he probably wanted only to circulate it among a few interested colleagues. So when we find a few errors and a few instances of clumsy coding, we should realize that it was an early effort that was not supposed to represent a polished product.”

I believe some researchers have come to the conclusion that "the earliest extant program for a stored program digital computer" was not written by John von Neumann, but by his wife: Klára Dán von Neumann.

Knuth references a letter "in the possession of Dr. Herman H. Goldstein," but scholars making the case for Klara are usually referencing the archival materials at the LoC:

http://rs5.loc.gov/service/mss/eadxmlmss/eadpdfmss/1996/ms99...

I'm doing some research that involves this issue, and I'd be grateful to anyone who has any insight on this. There's a book called Klara and the Bomb, which is quite fascinating (and makes the claim for Klara), but that book leans more toward art than research scholarship.

I am aware that "firsts" are often hard to identify when it comes to the history of science and technology; I'm personally more interested in what these very early programs were being used for than who wrote them, per se. But I'd still like to know if Knuth is actually correct in his assumption.