Inventors Of The Modern Computer FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslation) The First Successful High Level Programming Language John Backus & IBM

I really didn't know what the hell I wanted to do with my life...I said no, I couldn't. I looked sloppy and disheveled. But she insisted and so I did. I took a test and did OK. - John Backus on interviewing for IBM.

FORTRAN or formula translation, the first high level programming language, was invented by John Backus for IBM, in 1954, and released commercially, in 1957. It is still used today for programming scientific and mathematical applications. Fortran began as a digital code interpreter for the IBM 701 and was originally named Speedcoding. John Backus wanted a programming language closer to human language, which is the definition of a high level language, other high language programs include Ada, Algol, BASIC, COBOL, C, C++, LISP, Pascal, and Prolog.

The first generation of codes used to program a computer, was called machine language or machine code, it is the only language a computer really understands, a sequence of 0s and 1s that the computer's controls interprets as instructions, electrically. The second generation of code was called assembly language, assembly language turns the sequences of 0s and 1s into human words like 'add'. Assembly language is always translated back into machine code by programs called assemblers.

The third generation of code, was called high level language or HLL, which has human sounding words and syntax (like words in a sentence). In order for the computer to understand any HLL, a compiler translates the high level language into either assembly language or machine code. All programming languages need to be eventually translated into machine code for a computer to use the instructions they contain.

Backus headed the IBM team of researchers, at the Watson Scientific Laboratory, that invented Fortran. On the IBM team were the notable names of scientists like; Sheldon F. Best, Harlan Herrick (Harlan Herrick ran the first successful fortran program), Peter Sheridan, Roy Nutt, Robert Nelson, Irving Ziller, Richard Goldberg, Lois Haibt and David Sayre. The IBM team didn't invent HLL or the idea of compiling programming language into machine code, but Fortran was the first successful HLL and the Fortran I compiler holds the record for translating code for over 20 years. The first computer to run the first compiler was the IBM 704, which Backus helped design.

Fortran is now over forty years old and remains the top language in scientific and industrial programming, of course it has constantly been updated. The invention of Fortran began a $24 million dollar computer software industry and began the development of other high level programming languages, Fortran has been used for programming video games, air traffic control systems, payroll calculations, numerous scientific and military applications and parallel computer research. Backus won the 1993 National Academy of Engineering's Charles Stark Draper Prize, the highest national prize awarded in engineering, for the invention of Fortran.

For Further Reading
Biography of John Baccus and the Fortran team, information on Fortran and programming in Fortran, HTML version Of Fortran 77, free Fortran software.
 

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