31–40 of 64 posts
> Mauchly's teaching career truly began in 1933 at Ursinus College where he was appointed head of the physics department, where he was, in fact, the only staff member.
The Harvard Mark 1 ran its first program in 1944, but didn’t have branches as we understand them until 1946:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Mark_I
Apparently, you could achieve loops by taping the input program into a physical loop, even in 1944.
ENIAC was very important but this article overstates its significance and ignores other (non US) machines to the point of historical inaccuracy. No mention of Z3 or Manchester Baby for example, the latter based on the von Neumann paper for example, was arguably a more accurate pointer towards how computer architecture would develop.
ENIAC was far more important for the general computing industry than other machines of its time. ENIAC led to EMCC (the first computer company) and UNIVAC. It was UNIVAC and IBM struggling against one another that created the entire industry.
Arguably, it was the second. The Harvard Mark 1 ran its first program in 1944, but didn’t have branches as we understand them until 1946: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Mark_I Apparently, you could achieve loops by taping the input program into a physical loop, even in 1944.
They had to program it by physically rewiring patch cables and flipping switches. There was no programming language, no stored program. The "software" was the hardware configuration itself.
It took another decade before FORTRAN (1957) gave programmers a way to write instructions in something resembling human language.
The tube circuit resembled the ones shown in the photo linked below (although none of those in the photo are from ENIAC).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Women_holding_parts_of_th...
It was a balloon?
ENIAC is where the profession of programming was born — and the first programmers were six women: Kay McNulty, Betty Jennings, Betty Snyder, Marlyn Meltzer, Frances Bilas, and Ruth Lichterman. They had to program it by physically rewiring patch cables and flipping switches. There was no programming language, no stored program. The "software" was the hardware configuration itself. It took another decade before FORTRAN…
