Was a Victorian lady, the daughter of poet Lord Byron, really the world's first computer programmer?

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Augusta Ada Byron King, Countess of Lovelace, is something of a giant in the world of technology. The daughter of celebrated poet Lord Byron, Lovelace was a Victorian society hostess, the mother of three, and a mathematician widely credited as being the world's first computer programmer.

But an article in the latest issue of the "New Yorker" takes issue with Ada's contributions to computing. Written by journalist Jim Holt, the "New Yorker" piece claims that Ada had very little input in devising the punch-card system of programming for the Analytical Engine, inventor Charles Babbage's proto-computer, an 1840s collaboration that is Ada's strongest claim to fame.

Holt attempts to debunk the image of Ada as a prophet of technology, using author Benjamin Woolley's new book, "The Bride of Science: Romance, Reason, and Byron's Daughter" -- which was recently released in a US hardback edition -- as the basis for his reassessment of the woman known as the 19th century's "enchantress of numbers."

Holt's article argues that Ada, "had a shaky command of elementary algebra," failed to grasp trigonometry, and was at a loss when it came to calculus. According to both Holt and Woolley, Ada was a "hysteria-prone and often opium-addled" compulsive gambler, a "lusty coquette," and an unbalanced eccentric who "got swept up in the craze for mesmerism and phrenology."

"If Ada were alive today she could sue the New Yorker and Mr. Holt for libel," says Betty Toole, a science historian who spent more than eight years holed up in British libraries and archives researching Ada's letters, which she published in "Ada: The Enchantress of Numbers."

Holt and Woolley did not respond to TechTV's requests for comment.

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