With whomsoever or wheresoever may rest the present causes of difficulty that apparently exist towards either the completion of the old engine, or the commencement of the new one, we trust they will not ultimately result in this generation's being acquainted with these inventions through the medium of pen, ink and paper merely; and still more do we hope, that for the honour of our country's reputation in the future pages of history, these causes will not lead to the completion of the undertaking by some other nation or government.
Ada LovelaceOne main reason why the separate nature of the science of operations has been little felt, and in general little dwelt on, is the shifting meaning of many of the symbols used in mathematical notation. First, the symbols of operation are frequently also the symbols of the results of operations.
Ada LovelaceIn abstract mathematics, of course operations alter those particular relations which are involved in the considerations of number and space, and the results of operations are those peculiar results which correspond to the nature of the subjects of operation.
Ada LovelaceThe Analytical Engine has no pretensions whatever to originate anything. It can do whatever we know how to order it to perform.
Ada LovelaceOne essential object is to choose that arrangement which shall tend to reduce to a minimum the time necessary for completing the calculation.
Ada Lovelace