This paper is a fascinating expansion of research into the history of computation that appeared in the documentary film To Dream Tomorrow, created by the paper’s two authors. Specifically, the authors look at documentary evidence--in particular, letters between Augusta Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage--that indicate in considerable detail the contributions that each made to a collection of “Notes” published in 1843 (when Lovelace was 27 years old) in Taylor’s “Scientific Memoirs” concerning the analytical engine that Babbage had been working on for some time.

The message of the paper is that Lovelace had a deeper understanding than did Babbage of the generality and hence the potential of the engine: whereas Babbage saw the device as a very sophisticated numerical calculator to compute a wide range of functions, Lovelace understood that the values manipulated by the engine could be understood as values in many different problem domains and operated upon by appropriate manipulations. She illustrates this by describing the potential of generating musical compositions and “analytical combinations.”

The research presented here is possible because, as the Lovelace and Babbage paper was approaching its final published version, the authors were exchanging letters and notes as much as several times a day either through the post or by messenger. In this body of correspondence about the details of the editing and publishing process, there is convincing evidence that Lovelace had a deeper understanding of the possibilities opened up by the engine. This is an impressive accomplishment for someone who, in the period of ten years, from her first exposure to Babbage’s simpler difference engine to the publication of the joint paper, had started a family and come to this realization herself. Now, of course, we take as a basic reality the perspective she developed, and young children manipulate symbols on smartphones and tablets.