Author: Solomon Bitone
Creating a programming language that can maintain a balance between power and compatibility is a great accomplishment. COBOL 60 was designed to be a standardized and widely used language across all businesses. However, as time passed, it became seen as a nuisance for its monolithic code structures and inefficient programming style (1). Despite its later shortcomings, COBOL managed to be the first language to implement recursion. This is significant, considering how time-restricted CODASYL was in making the language. COBOL was innovative for the 1960s because it was one of the first high-level programming languages and it was compatible across many computers.
In 1959, the need for a standardized programming language for businesses was apparent, so Mary K. Hawes (ElectroData Division, Burroughs Corporation) requested a formal meeting with programmers and manufacturers to create such a language (2). The resulting language was COBOL (common business-oriented language), which changed the world of programming for everyone. CODASYL (Committee on Data Systems Languages) was formed in order to guide the development of COBOL, and their team was made of individuals with backgrounds that involved data processing activities (3). One noteworthy individual is Grace Hopper, who was one of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer in 1944. She invented the first compiler for a computer programming language (5). Her goal with COBOL was to make it a highly
Technology is becoming a bigger part of this world every day, and programmers are needed for every bit of it. Anything that is at all electric involves programming. Someone has to program the street lights to run at certain times. Someone has to program your phone and all of the applications on it. Someone has to program the computer that you’re reading this off of. Programmers are essential to everyday life, and without them, there would be no working technology.
In 1973, 19-year-old Maria Elena left Colombia and arrived alone in Miami. Speaking just a few words of English. Her goal was to learn 50 new words a day. By talking to people and reading children’s books. Soon she spoke well enough to enroll at Florida International University, earn a computer science degree, and so impressed college officials that they hired her as a programmer.
She received the Naval Ordnance Development Award for her pioneering applications programming success on the Mark I, Mark II, and Mark III computers. Grace Hopper joined the U.S. Navy during World War II. She led the team that created the first computer language compiler, which led to the popular COBOL language. She joined the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, a part of the U.S. Naval Reserve) in 1943 and a year later was Lieutenant Hopper. After the war, Hopper remained with the Navy as a reserve officer. Soon enough, Hopper died in Virginia in
In a world that is currently dominated by computers, it’s hard to imagine what it was like before they were invented. Though computers only began having a major influence in the last 60 years, the idea for them was first conceived almost 200 years ago. This technology would not have been possible without the work of Ada Lovelace, who is considered one of the pioneers in the field of computer programming. She had a vision of the possible benefits and capabilities of a computing machine. Even though she would never see her vision become a reality, her legacy and work had a lasting impact on the future of technology. However, during her lifetime she experienced multiple setbacks in pursuing her education
C programming language actually outgrew from another programming language, B, created by Ben Thomson when he was working on the UNIX operating system, which although has a hierarchal file-system, device files and command line interpreter but lacked a system programming language. I found the language so fascinating that it drew my interest to the field of computer science and it played a huge role in motivating me to choose Computer science as the field of my education and career. When I started working, I got the opportunity of working in the UNIX and Linux environments, which I continue to love and work on. I am a big advocate of open-source languages, operating systems and products and all these would not have been possible without UNIX, C programming language and Dennis
One of the first women to encounter computer programming, Grace Murray Hopper put in many contributions to the IT world. Also known as Admiral Hopper, she put in much effort for her country, drafting into the Navy. Going through gender discrimination and her constant effort put in technology has given many people inspiration and the hope for future computing.
Speech is much like the fashions in clothing. Most of us dress according to "the style of the day." The shoes we wear and the shirts we put on usually what is considered "fashionable." If you choose to ignore the understood dress rules set by society, than your chances of being accepted become slim. In the same manner, when you ignore the majority's methods of speech, you become less accepted for it. If you buy a "cool" Tommy Hilfiger shirt, nobody looks at you any less for giving in to the standard instead of wearing a pink and orange poke-a-dotted shirt like you might have wanted to. You have not degraded yourself for conforming, but instead have opened opportunities for an audience. Just the same, when you change your manner of
Ada Lovelace worked with Charles Babbage to develop what would become the first computer by writing the algorithms needed to make computers work. She checked Babbage’s work and found errors in his system, helping to design the computer. Lovelace is considered the first
Ockham, Surrey County, England, the Summer of 1843. Lady Ada Lovelace frantically prepares her “Notes” to Sir Charles Babbage. This 19,136 words document will hold the first description of the term “computer” a century before this idea will come to fruition.
“Grace Hopper was known as “Amazing Grace”, the “Grand Old Lady of Software”, the “First Lady” of data processing, the “Mother of Modern Naval Computing” and Grandma COBOL. She was utterly dedicated to the service of her country and served in the U.S Navy for forty-three year, rising to the high rank of rear admiral. She was a mathematical genius at a time when women weren’t even expected to go to college, achieving honors and degrees that only a few other women of her time managed to accomplish. She was instrumental in developing many of the vital procedures that have made modern computers possible. In this field she has a long string of first and unusual accomplishments, from being the first woman to program the first computer in the United Staes to being the first woman and sometimes the first American to win certain
A baby is programmed to learn language-any language-but he isn't any more equipped to learn your language than he is to learn Portuguese. If he were adopted by a family in Portugal, he would learn Portuguese and not the English he will learn from you.
Ada Lovelace – born Augusta Ada King-Noel, Countess of Lovelace in 1815 – is widely considered to the world’s first programmer. Being the daughter of the famous poet Lord Byron and Lady Byron, Ada Lovelace was afforded the ability to study math and science from a young age. This was a rare affordance, even for women from aristocratic families. At 17, Ada met another famous figure of computer science, Charles Babbage, who helped shape the work she would do. Unfortunately, Ada spent much of her life in poor health due to contracting cholera at the age of 22 (Biography.com Editors, "Ada Lovelace Biography", 2016). Despite the obstacles, Ada Lovelace has gone down in the annals of history as one of the founders of computer science.
Ada Lovelace, a famous female mathematician, wrote the first published computer program. She was a computing visionary. She figured out that computers could do more than calculate. Her parents were very intelligent. Ada’s mother, Anne Isabella Milbanke, was wealthy and privately tutored. Ada’s father, was brilliant, but a notorious poet, known as Lord Byron. Ada got her smarts from her parents.
Her brief life distinguishes herself as an important participant in the early history of modern computers, for she was the first to articulate the methodology of computer programming. She saw into the future of the Analytical Engine unlike many of the capable minds of her time. Though her life was short, Ada Lovelace anticipated by more than a 110 years most of what we think of as brand-new computing. Although her discoveries were prodigious, her work had little or no direct influence on computer science, for computer scientists in the 1940’s and 1950’s had rediscovered most of what she had written without any knowledge of her work. However, her life and work are of great historical interest and leaves a legacy from which many women may be inspired. Ada Lovelace, persevered and followed her passions despite the limitations placed upon her as a woman. She is a role model to look up to as someone not limited by the traditional roles women found themselves in. Her life exemplifies the fact that life is short and it should be lived
She impacted the science world by being the first computer programming, and was considered to have wrote the first instructions in the 1800s. Her contributions though weren’t notice until the 1950s. B.V. Bowden had republished her findings in Faster Than Thought: A Symposium on Digital Computing Machines in 1953. Since then, Ada has received many honors for her work. In 1980, the U.S. Department of Defense named a newly developed computer language "Ada," after