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John Warner Backus (December 3, 1924 – March 17, 2007) was an American computer scientist. He led the team that invented and implemented FORTRAN, the first widely used high-level programming language, and was the inventor of the Backus–Naur form (BNF), a widely used notation to define syntaxes of formal languages.
John Backus The father of Fortran. Backus is best known as the father of Fortran, the first widely used, high-level programming language that helped open the door to modern computing.
Apr 30, 2024 · John Warner Backus (born Dec. 3, 1924, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.—died March 17, 2007, Ashland, Ore.) was an American computer scientist and mathematician who led the team that designed FORTRAN (formula translation), the first important algorithmic language for computers.
John Backus, Fortran’s primary author, described the process as “hand-to-hand combat with the machine,” with the machine often winning. The cost of programmers was usually at least as great as the cost of the computers, and programmers spent up to half their time debugging.
John Backus developed Fortran, or Formula Translator, one of the first general purpose, high-level computer programming languages. This widely used language made computers practical and accessible machines for scientists and others without requiring them to have deep knowledge of the machinery.
Mar 17, 2007 · John Backus. United States – 1977. CITATION. For profound, influential, and lasting contributions to the design of practical high-level programming systems, notably through his work on FORTRAN, and for seminal publication of formal procedures for the specification of programming languages. Short Annotated. Bibliography. ACM Turing Award. Lecture.
Jun 5, 2024 · John Backus was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1924. He received an MS in mathematics from Columbia University (1950). Shortly before he graduated, Backus interviewed at IBM and was hired to work on programming their new computer systems.
