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<blockquote>The [1834 article] chiefly treats it under its mechanical aspect, entering but slightly into the mathematical principles of which that engine is the representative, but giving, in considerable length, many details of the mechanism and contrivances by means of which it tabulates the various orders of differences. M. Menabrea, on the contrary, exclusively developes the analytical view; taking it for granted that mechanism is able to perform certain processes, but without attempting to explain how; and devoting his whole attention to explanations and illustrations of the manner in which analytical laws can be so arranged and combined as to bring every branch of that vast subject within the grasp of the assumed powers of mechanism. It is obvious that, in the invention of a calculating engine, these two branches of the subject are equally essential fields of investigation... They are indissolubly connected, though so different in their intrinsic nature, that perhaps the same mind might not be likely to prove equally profound or successful in both.<ref name="fourmilab.ch" />{{rp|Note A}}
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===Controversy over contribution===
Though Lovelace is often referred to as the first computer programmer, some biographers, computer scientists and historians of computing suggest otherwise.
[[Allan Bromley (historian)|Allan G. Bromley]], in the 1990 article ''Difference and Analytical Engines'':
{{Blockquote|All but one of the programs cited in her notes had been prepared by Babbage from three to seven years earlier. The exception was prepared by Babbage for her, although she did detect a "bug" in it. Not only is there no evidence that Ada ever prepared a program for the Analytical Engine, but her correspondence with Babbage shows that she did not have the knowledge to do so.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bromley |first=Allan G. |author-link=Allan G. Bromley |contribution=Difference and Analytical Engines |title=Computing Before Computers |editor-first=William |editor-last=Aspray |publisher=Iowa State University Press |location=Ames |pages=59–98 |chapter-url=http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/CBC-Ch-02.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/CBC-Ch-02.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |date=1990 |isbn=0-8138-0047-1}} p. 89.</ref>}}
Bruce Collier wrote that Lovelace "made a considerable contribution to publicizing the Analytical Engine, but there is no evidence that she advanced the design or theory of it in any way".<ref name="Collier 1990 p.">{{cite book |last=Collier |first=Bruce |title=The Little Engines that Could've: The Calculating Machines of Charles Babbage |date=1990 |publisher=[[Garland Science]] |isbn=0-8240-0043-9 |page=181}}</ref>
Eugene Eric Kim and Betty Alexandra Toole consider it "incorrect" to regard Lovelace as the first computer programmer, as Babbage wrote the initial programs for his Analytical Engine, although the majority were never published.{{sfn|Kim|Toole|1999}} Bromley notes several dozen sample programs prepared by Babbage between 1837 and 1840, all substantially predating Lovelace's notes.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Bromley |first=Allan G. |date=July–September 1982 |title=Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine, 1838 |journal=IEEE Annals of the History of Computing |url=http://athena.union.edu/~hemmendd/Courses/cs80/an-engine.pdf |pages=197–217 |volume=4 |issue=3 |doi=10.1109/mahc.1982.10028 |s2cid=2285332 |access-date=25 December 2015 |archive-date=26 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210226094829/http://athena.union.edu/~hemmendd/Courses/cs80/an-engine.pdf |url-status=dead }} p. 197.</ref> [[Dorothy K. Stein]] regards Lovelace's notes as "more a reflection of the mathematical uncertainty of the author, the political purposes of the inventor, and, above all, of the social and cultural context in which it was written, than a blueprint for a scientific development".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Stein |first=Dorothy K. |author-link=Dorothy Stein |year=1984 |title=Lady Lovelace's Notes: Technical Text and Cultural Context |journal=Victorian Studies |pages=33–67 |volume=28 |issue=1}} p. 34.</ref>
[[Doron Swade]] has said that Ada only published the first computer program instead of actually writing it, but agrees that she was the only person to see the potential of the analytical engine as a machine capable of expressing entities other than quantities.<ref>{{cite speech |last=Swade |first=Doron |author-link=Doron Swade |title=Charles Babbage and Difference Engine No. 2 |event=Talks at Google |date=12 May 2008 |location=Mountain View, CA |publisher=Talks at Google via YouTube |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7K5p_tBcrd0&t=36m29s | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211122/7K5p_tBcrd0| archive-date=2021-11-22 | url-status=live|access-date=29 November 2018}}{{cbignore}}</ref>
In his book, ''Idea Makers'', [[Stephen Wolfram]] defends Lovelace's contributions. While acknowledging that Babbage wrote several unpublished algorithms for the Analytical Engine prior to Lovelace's notes, Wolfram argues that "there's nothing as sophisticated—or as clean—as Ada's computation of the Bernoulli numbers. Babbage certainly helped and commented on Ada's work, but she was definitely the driver of it." Wolfram then suggests that Lovelace's main achievement was to distill from Babbage's correspondence "a clear exposition of the abstract operation of the machine—something which Babbage never did".<ref name="Wolfram">{{cite book |last=Wolfram |first=Stephen |title=Idea Makers: Personal Perspectives on the Lives & Ideas of Some Notable People |date=2016 |publisher=Wolfram Media |isbn=978-1-57955-003-5 |pages=45–98}}</ref>
==Commemoration<!--'Ada Lovelace Day' redirects here-->==
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