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Pioneer Programmer: Jean Jennings Bartik and the Computer That Changed the World

Jean Jennings Bartik

4.16 · Rating details · 25 ratings · 2 reviews

In early 1945, the United States military was recruiting female mathematicians for a top-secret project to help win World War II. Betty Jean Jennings (Bartik), a twenty-year-old college graduate from rural northwest Missouri, wanted an adventure, so she applied for the job. She was hired as a “computer” to calculate artillery shell trajectories for Aberdeen Proving Ground, ...more

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Unknown Binding, 257 pages

Published June 12th 2014 by Truman State University Press (first published November 1st 2013)

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Dec 15, 2014 DMS rated it really liked it

Shelves: kindle

http://dms.booklikes.com/post/1080032...

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Apr 26, 2014 Roger Asbury rated it really liked it

Shelves: computing-history

You know you've probably done something right with your life if you have a museum named after you. Unfortunately, Jean Jennings is one of those incredible personalities that even many who work in the same field as she, a field she helped pioneer, have never heard about.

Jean was a programmer. She created programs for the ENIAC, the first stored program computer, along with an amazing talented group of women, during and after the second World War. She helped design and program the next generation You know you've probably done something right with your life if you have a museum named after you. Unfortunately, Jean Jennings is one of those incredible personalities that even many who work in the same field as she, a field she helped pioneer, have never heard about.

Jean was a programmer. She created programs for the ENIAC, the first stored program computer, along with an amazing talented group of women, during and after the second World War. She helped design and program the next generation of computers, EDVAC and UNIVAC, as well.

So why haven't many people heard of her and the other women of the ENIAC? Because, for the most part, they have been written out of history. Many popular books on computing, including those written by those who worked closely with Jean and her female coworkers, either never mention them, mention them in passing without naming them, or flat out claim credit for the work they performed.

In this book, Jean Jennings Bartik attempts to set the record straight and to give credit to the women who helped pioneer the emerging field of computer programming.

Beside setting this record straight, this book provides an enlightening view of the post-war evolution of computing. Jean worked for several companies that played a big part in that development, including Remington Rand and a number of publishing houses specializing in the documentation of computing systems.

After the publication of an article on the ENIAC women in the mid-90s, Jean and her compatriots finally got the accolades they deserved, and she went on to earn many honors. Despite working in what continues to be a chauvinistic and male-dominated industry, she encouraged women to work in and bring their perspective to emerging technologies.

The tech industry needs more women like Jean Jennings Bartik.

I would have rated this book all five stars, except there are some editing errors. There are whole phrases that seem to be replicated word-for-word, often separated by many pages. Not a big deal, just a little weird, and while reading on my Nook had me wondering if I'd accidentally gone back pages. ...more

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