History of software

Software is a set of programmed instructions stored in the memory of stored-program digital computers for execution by the processor. Software is a recent development in human history, and it is fundamental to the Information Age. Ada Lovelace's programs for Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine in the 19th century is often considered the founder of the discipline. However, the mathematician's efforts remained theoretical only, as the technology of Lovelace and Babbage's day proved insufficient to build his computer. Alan Turing is credited with being the first person to come up with a theory for software in 1935, which led to the two academic fields of computer science and software engineering. The first generation of software for early stored-program digital computers in the late 1940s had its instructions written directly in binary code, generally written for mainframe computers. Later, the development of modern programming languages alongside the advancement of the home computer would greatly widen the scope and breadth of available software, beginning with assembly language, and continuing through functional programming and object-oriented programming paradigms. History of computer science Computing as a concept goes back to ancient times, with devices such as the abacus, the Antikythera mechanism, Astrolabes, Mechanical Astronomical clocks and Mechanical Calculators. The Antikythera mechanism is an example for a highly complex ancient mechanical Astronomical device. However, these devices were pure hardware and had no software - their computing powers were directly tied to their specific form and engineering. Software requires the concept of a general-purpose processor - what is now described as a Turing machine - as well as computer memory in which reusable sets of routines and mathematical functions comprising programs can be stored, started, and stopped individually, and only appears recently in human history. The first known computer algorithm was written by Ada Lovelace in the 19th century for the Analytical Engine, to translate Luigi Menabrea's work on Bernoulli numbers for machine instruction.