When was the computer developed?

Answer 1

Despite popular conception, it was not Bill Gates. Software dates back to way before Bill Gates was born (20 years). In fact, "The first theory about software was proposed by Alan Turing in his 1935 essay On Computable numbers with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem."

It has generally been concluded that the first person to write computer programs as they are understood today was Ada Augusta Countess of Lovelace in late 1842. These programs were written to run on Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine (the first general purpose programmable digital computer invented), had it ever been built.

Some people try to claim that as these programs never actually ran on a machine that they don't count, or that Babbage contributed more to these programs than she did. Careful readings of their letters at the time indicate:

1. she selected the problems to be programmed
2. Babbage provided mathematical formula and requirements only on the most complex of these problems, on review she found several grave errors in his math and returned his notes for clarification and correction
3. she was entirely responsible for the design of the programs to solve these problems
4. she was entirely responsible for coding the programs to solve these problems

These are exactly the steps modern software engineers follow on their jobs.

Answer 2

The first computer that could store a program (software) was the Manchester Small Scale Experimental Machine, nicknamed the Baby. This was in 1948 at the University of Manchester in England. Tom Kilburn wrote the first program to be executed on the Baby. So it could be argued that:

Tom Kilburn invented the software.

Answer 3

The computer, as we know it today was first developed in the 1940s.

Answer 4

in 1990