Crazy question involving computers, the first programmer, and the fate of humanity as we know it.

Question

How was the very first computer programmed?

I mean, you can't make a computer a computer without a program for it to compute and run...

But you can't make a program without a programming language to program the program in...

And you can't have a programming language without a compiler to compile the program in the programming language.

But how do you develop a compiler without a programming language to develop the compiler in?

And as such, without the ability to compile other programs in the language, then how do you program the computer's basic standard programs in.

And without a programming language for the computer to compute the programmed programs, how is any computer programming language made?

In other words, this is the new chicken or the egg paradox...

So, what came first... The compiler that needs to be programmed to be a compiling program, or the programming language, which needs a compiler to compile the programs made, even if that program is a compiler itself?

Answer 1

https://www.sololearn.com/Discuss/1108293/?ref=app
https://www.sololearn.com/Discuss/211805/?ref=app
https://www.sololearn.com/Discuss/1108288/?ref=app
https://www.sololearn.com/Discuss/1098490/?ref=app

Answer 2

It's not really chicken and egg. First programmable computer was made by Alan Turing. After the death of Alan Turing, many years later, Ada Lovelace wrote the first ever program. Too bad he couldn't even live to see if his machine works. But the creator of the computers as we know today, is Charles Babbage. I don't remember the dates.

Answer 3

Computer Science: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtNlUrzyH5r6jN9ulIgZBpdo

This is a great playlist which takes you through the history of computer science.

It really is fascinating as we are so far removed from that time - it discusses how, with simple AND and OR gates we can perform arithmetic. Appreciate we are literally manipulating 1s and 0s. By dealing with memory registers we can perform more complex operations (note also that this usually required detailed knowledge of the particular hardware you worked on).

The process is gradually abstracted so that a single command can do many of these things, removing the details of the implementation to the programmer, and we keep going up from there.

All the while, the code is still ultimately converted down to the machine code that people worked with initially. Everything we do we is theoretically possible on machine code, but modern languages allow us to focus on the actual task in hand, rather than directly interacting with the hardware

Answer 4

Dan Walker Always great to come across informative videos that don't take at least an hour to put a message across. Thanks for sharing ☺

Answer 5

G.T.T yeah I love this series, there's something to take away from each video and they're pretty short :)

Answer 6

This is the type of thing about programming that confuses me the most, what is the root of programming if not the programming language, and how are programming languages even made?

Answer 7

Is it magic?

Answer 8

??