From the Origin of Developers to Nowadays

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The web is more a social invention than a technical one. I designed it for its social impact — to help people work together — not as a technological toy.

Tim Berners-Lee
Tim Berners-LeeInventor of the World Wide Web

Before looking at the different facets of the developer's job, let's take a quick look back at how this virtual universe came into being.

Building a historical understanding of programming and the Internet will allow you to better place certain technologies and grasp this profession more effectively.

For each period in this history, we explore some essential developers, and we also sketch a typical portrait of the characteristic developer of the era to better recall it.

Here are the three major periods we cover:

  1. From the 19th Century to the 1980s
  2. From the 1990s to the mid-2000s
  3. From the 2000s to the present day

This historical journey also provides an opportunity to question certain stereotypes about the developer profession:

To begin, let's go back to the 19th century and discover the pioneers of computing!

From the 19th Century to the 1980s

This period marks the origin of computing with the creation of the first algorithms and increasingly sophisticated machines to execute them.

Let's explore three essential pioneers of this era:

  1. Ada Lovelace (1815-1852)
  2. Alan Turing (1912-1954)
  3. Dennis Ritchie (1941-2011)

1.1 Ada Lovelace

Ada Lovelace portrait
Portrait of Ada Lovelace (1815-1852)

It all begins in the mid-19th century with the encounter of two geniuses: Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace.

Charles Babbage is considered the 'father of computing' for conceptualizing an automatic machine for complex calculations, while Ada Lovelace is recognized for creating the first algorithm to be executed on this machine.

Thanks to this duo, the foundations of modern computers were laid with:

  • algorithms, which are at the heart of software
  • and the hardware to execute these software programs.

They spent their lives envisioning what this machine could look like. Despite their efforts, they could only deliver an unfinished prototype.

But an iconic figure in computing achieved this feat, and that is Alan Turing.

Let's discover his portrait!

1.2 Alain Turing

Alan Turing portrait
Portrait de Alan Turing (1912-1954)

It's a small leap of a century after the conceptualization on paper of Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine in the 1930s-1950s that Alan Turing will build the first computer: the famous Turing machine.

Its story is as remarkable as his talent. Especially since without this invention, the course of history could have been completely different.

Allow me to provide a brief historical overview to understand the importance of this invention!

At the height of the Second World War, Alan is conscripted into the British army with the mission of decoding encrypted Nazi messages using a machine called Enigma.