Talk:Mary Lee Woods

Untitled
Much of the material for this article came from personal communication with Conway and Mary Lee Berners-Lee.--TedColes (talk) 07:37, 13 December 2009 (UTC)

Blegh, messy article
Can the editor who said this, be positive in making suggestions?--TedColes (talk) 11:16, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

first?
Conway once told me that Mary Lee wrote the first computer program sold commercially, has that distinction been found to lie elsewhere? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Boris58 (talk • contribs) 15:54, 28 February 2014 (UTC)

External links modified
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I have just modified one external link on Mary Lee Woods. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20081229132333/http://www.computer50.org/mark1/MM1.html to http://www.computer50.org/mark1/MM1.html

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Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 03:05, 5 December 2017 (UTC)

Changing the article to indicate death
Please remember we need a reliable reference, such as an obituary, before changing the article.--Racklever (talk) 19:24, 29 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Hi Racklever, need a second opinion on this. Do you think we can use this as a source for her death? It doesn't state a date but mentions her passing (it's on the last page). Cheers --Jkaharper (talk) 16:35, 8 January 2018 (UTC)
 * As a family friend, I was privileged to be informed of her death and attend the service celebrating her life. I will therefore re-instate the information.--TedColes (talk) 17:39, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

External links modified (January 2018)
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 external links on Mary Lee Woods. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090705094617/http://www.computer50.org/mark1/program.html to http://www.computer50.org/mark1/program.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090515020909/http://www.digital60.org/birth/manchestercomputers/mark1/documents/fm1star.html to http://www.digital60.org/birth/manchestercomputers/mark1/documents/fm1star.html

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Add material and style from the article on Conway Berners-Lee
I suggest we add here better stuff:

1. Wording

Change from :

“… worked in a team that developed programs…”

to:

“…worked as a member of the team that developed…”

2. Focus

Compare: (Mary’s)

“… worked in a team that developed programs in the Department of Computer Science, University of Manchester…”

to: (Conway’s)

“…worked as a member of the team that developed the Ferranti Mark 1, the world's first commercial stored program electronic computer.

3. Quote

Add this quote from the article on Conway, as it is Mary talking!?:

”The following is an extract from Dominic Wilson's book Organizational Marketing. In Manchester, nearly half the programmers were women, Conway Berners-Lee, who married one of them, said 'Ferranti hired intelligent girls very cheaply but this gave them a big cultural problem because, prior to that, the company had only employed women as typists or factory hands'. 'Men got more than women', Mary Lee added. 'It was grossly unfair and there was a rebellion. The personnel officer was shocked we'd even discussed our wages.' She was on £400 a year. [Her starting salary was actually £450.] 'The Tin Hut [where the programmers worked] marriage rate was high', her husband said. 'The Robinsons … the Bennetts … the Clarkes … us.' [ ... ] Many of these pioneers had moved on to professorships, or stock optionsand top executive jobs. They'd been the culmination of a measured progress from military radar work to academia to commerce, and the heroically named 'Pegasus’ computers had made Ferranti a lot of money. 83.209.196.65 (talk) 07:46, 27 January 2024 (UTC)