Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the birth of Adm. Grace Hopper

[eppur_se_muova]

Celebrating the creator of Cobol
By Mark Ward
Technology correspondent, BBC News website

The 100th anniversary of the birth of programming language pioneer Grace Hopper was celebrated on 9 December. Widely credited as being the "mother" of the Cobol computer language her work was hugely influential.
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A look below the surface of the computer world uncovers some very old technology - such as the Cobol programming language. The COmmon Business Oriented Language was created in 1959 and, though it is no longer taught in schools and universities, you still bump up against it every day.
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Dr Hopper, who had a PhD in mathematics, gained her familiarity with computers thanks to the US Navy. She joined the US Naval Reserve in 1943 and was put to work on the Mark 1 Calculator - one of the first digital computers.

She went on to work on the Univac - the first commercial computer in the US - and it was at this time she did the pioneering work that led to Cobol.

Standard issue

Her inspiration was to create a computer language that read more like real English rather than the tortuous machine code used by many other programming languages of the time.


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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6168489.stm

As every hacker knows, Hopper was responsible for introducing the technical term "bug" -- the first bug being a dead moth, found in the guts of a large (vacuum-tube) mainframe, which she taped into here notebook. A well-earned salute to a true pioneer.

[BrotherBuzz]

1. “It is often easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission.” Grace Hopper

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Congratulation Adm, your contiibutiions

allow me to seat here and type

[TahitiNut]

3. As a career IT/MIS person, I met Captain Hopper.

(Yes, she was a Captain at the time.) The first time was at a conference at the Royal York in Toronto - the same conference where I met and had a few beers with Edsgar Dijkstra. It was the early 70s. She had her ever-present knitting with her. She was both crusty and had a superb sense of humor. She was a terrific personality in the profession.

[sarge43]

4. Thank you for this tribute

She was a true pioneer.
:patriot: