Dr. Grace Murray Hopper
Dr. Grace Murray Hopper, the "mother of computing" was born on December 9, 1906 in New York City. Computer pioneer and mathematician Grace Murray Hopper is best known for her 1952 invention of Flow-Matic, the first compiler software that translates instructions written in English into machine language for the target computer. Compilers have allowed the development of computers that seem to "understand" English, a breakthrough which lets computers be programmed by people who might lack an advanced degree in mathematics.
Hopper worked on several first-generation computers, including the Mark I, Mark II, and Mark III. She helped John Presper Eckert and John William Mauchly with the design and development of the BINAC (Binary Automatic Computer), and she was involved with programming the UNIVAC I, the first U.S. commercial electronic computer. In 1959 she wrote the original specifications for the COBOL (COmmon Business-Oriented Language) programming language, which formed the basis of software design for the next generation of computers. She was the first winner of the Data Processing Management Association's Man of the Year Award, in 1969.
As a girl she disassembled and reassembled the alarm clocks in her family's home. She joined the Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service) in 1943, and was assigned to work under Howard Aiken at Harvard's Bureau of Ordnance Computation Project, where she became an expert at the heavy mathematics then required for programming, and literally wrote the operating manual. Her first major innovation was to catalog and share common portions of different programs, to avoid "reinventing the wheel" with every piece of software. She frequently encouraged co-workers and subordinates to think beyond the bounds of the ordinary, and to illustrate the point she kept a clock in her office that ran counter-clockwise.
During her work with Mark II, Hopper was credited with coining the term "bug" in reference to a glitch in the machinery. This story is apparently a bit of computer folk-lore, however, as the term had already been used by Harvard personnel for several years to describe problems with their computers. It is the case that she and her team of programmers did find a moth which flew through an open window and into one of Mark II's relays, temporarily shutting down the system. The moth was removed and pasted into a logbook [Photo of that bug]. At that time the use of the word "bug" referred to problems with the hardware. In the mid 1950's, Hopper extended the meaning of the term "debug" to include removing programming errors.
She retired from the US Navy three times — first in 1946, switching to the Naval Reserve; then in 1966 with the rank of Commander, but within a year Navy brass asked her to return, to help develop an automated payroll system. She was promoted to captain in 1973, and retired for the third time in 1986 with the rank of rear admiral. She died in 1992, and was buried with military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. She is the namesake of the Navy destroyer USS Hopper, and the Hopper Award, presented annually by the Association for Computing Machinery.
Hopper worked on several first-generation computers, including the Mark I, Mark II, and Mark III. She helped John Presper Eckert and John William Mauchly with the design and development of the BINAC (Binary Automatic Computer), and she was involved with programming the UNIVAC I, the first U.S. commercial electronic computer. In 1959 she wrote the original specifications for the COBOL (COmmon Business-Oriented Language) programming language, which formed the basis of software design for the next generation of computers. She was the first winner of the Data Processing Management Association's Man of the Year Award, in 1969.
As a girl she disassembled and reassembled the alarm clocks in her family's home. She joined the Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service) in 1943, and was assigned to work under Howard Aiken at Harvard's Bureau of Ordnance Computation Project, where she became an expert at the heavy mathematics then required for programming, and literally wrote the operating manual. Her first major innovation was to catalog and share common portions of different programs, to avoid "reinventing the wheel" with every piece of software. She frequently encouraged co-workers and subordinates to think beyond the bounds of the ordinary, and to illustrate the point she kept a clock in her office that ran counter-clockwise.
During her work with Mark II, Hopper was credited with coining the term "bug" in reference to a glitch in the machinery. This story is apparently a bit of computer folk-lore, however, as the term had already been used by Harvard personnel for several years to describe problems with their computers. It is the case that she and her team of programmers did find a moth which flew through an open window and into one of Mark II's relays, temporarily shutting down the system. The moth was removed and pasted into a logbook [Photo of that bug]. At that time the use of the word "bug" referred to problems with the hardware. In the mid 1950's, Hopper extended the meaning of the term "debug" to include removing programming errors.
She retired from the US Navy three times — first in 1946, switching to the Naval Reserve; then in 1966 with the rank of Commander, but within a year Navy brass asked her to return, to help develop an automated payroll system. She was promoted to captain in 1973, and retired for the third time in 1986 with the rank of rear admiral. She died in 1992, and was buried with military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. She is the namesake of the Navy destroyer USS Hopper, and the Hopper Award, presented annually by the Association for Computing Machinery.