John W. Backus, 82, Fortran Developer, Dies

[Kevin D. Clark]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/20/business/20backus.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

John W. Backus, 82, Fortran Developer, Dies

John W. Backus, who assembled and led the I.B.M. team that created
Fortran, the first widely used programming language, which helped open
the door to modern computing, died on Saturday at his home in Ashland,
Ore. He was 82.

His daughter Karen Backus announced the death, saying the family did
not know the cause, other than age.

Fortran, released in 1957, the turning  in computer software, much as
the microprocessor was a giant step forward in hardware, according to
J.A.N. Lee, a leading computer historian.

Fortran changed the terms of communication between humans and
computers, moving up a level to a language that was more
comprehensible by humans. So Fortran, in computing vernacular, is
considered the first successful higher-level language.

Mr. Backus and his youthful team, then all in their 20s and 30s,
devised a programming language that resembled a combination of English
shorthand and algebra. Fortran, short for Formula Translator, was very
similar to the algebraic formulas that scientists and engineers used
in their daily work. With some training, they were no longer dependent
on a programming priesthood to translate their science and engineering
problems into a language a computer would understand.

In an interview several years ago, Ken Thompson, who developed the
Unix operating system at Bell Labs in 1969, observed 95 percent of the
people who programmed in the early years would never have done it
without Fortran.''

He added:  ``It was a massive step.''

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