Grace Hopper
Author of the First Compiler
A-0, COBOL, and machine-independent programming
Rating
98Impact score
Domains
CompilersCOBOLProgramming languages
Scouting report
Wrote the A-0 system in 1952, the first compiler, against a field that told her computers could only do arithmetic. Drove the design of FLOW-MATIC and then COBOL, which put business programming into something close to English and ran the world’s finance for decades. Rear Admiral, and the reason anyone says a program has a bug.
Curator’s note
Argued that code should be readable by humans and won, permanently.
Portrait
Painted from a photograph of Grace Hopper by James S. Davis, licensed Public domain.
Sources
- 01Grace Hopper en.wikipedia.org
- 02The A-0 compiler en.wikipedia.org