Amazing Grace

By Dr Chris P. Jobling

March 24, 2009

In honour of “Lady Lovelace Day” I had pledged to write a post on computing pioneer Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, one of first programmers of the Harvard Mark I Calculator and designers of the Cobol programming language. Grace is always remembered for finding a real bug in one of her computer programs (in the days when computers were made with thermionic valves and relays) and taped it into her log book along with the wry comment:

“[time] 15.45 Relay #70, Panel F (moth) in Relay. First actual case of bug being found.”

p>As luck would have it, as I sat down to type this post, I found this video interview from 2 October 1986 on YouTube which adds some additional interest to this post.

http://youtube.com/v/57bfxsiVTd4

What a wonderful, warm and funny woman!

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