John W. Backus (1924-2007)

IBM

High level programming languages like Java, Visual Basic, C++ and a slew of others are normal vernacular in the software development world and modern computing could not possibly exist without the use of these high level programming languages. Society in general and not just computer users owe a ton of gratitude to John Backus because were it not for Mr. Backus we probably would not have had high level programming languages and modern computing as we know it today would most likely not have existed. High level languages allow software developers and computer programmers to develop applications rapidly and and easily - as opposed to writing low level or machine code (a series of zeros and ones) which is time consuming and has a steep learning curve hence not many people could be proficient in it.

John Backus of-course is credited for leading an IBM team to develop the first ever (debatable, but definitely the first to be widely used) high level programming language called FORTRAN (Formula Translator). The language was developed in the 1950’s primarily for the scientific and engineering community so they could write computer programs in a relatively easy manner and in a shorter time frame. What made this language easy to comprehend was the English like syntax which made the commands very intuitive. Once the programs were written in FORTRAN the computer would interpret or translate it into machine readable code where the behavior defined in the program would then be executed. What Mr. Backus and his team did was abstract the machine level code (typically referred to as “bits and bytes” or “ones and zeros”) into this “high level” language called FORTRAN thus making it easier and faster to develop computer applications.

Much of my work has come from being lazy,” Backus told Think, the IBM employee magazine, in 1979. “I didn’t like writing programs, and so, when I was working on the IBM 701 (an early computer), writing programs for computing missile trajectories, I started work on a programming system to make it easier to write programs.

Because of Mr. Backus’ efforts we are able to live in a “digital” world today where automation is pretty much a norm rather than an exception. The word “Software” would probably be non-existent if FORTRAN was not developed. Universities and colleges may not have had Computer Science or Computer Information Systems as part of their curriculum and course offerings. The software industry and the profession would most likely be non-existent today.

Indeed, we owe a great debt of gratitude to this true pioneer and a man who revolutionized modern computing - you might not have been able to read this blog if John Backus didn’t take those first steps towards high level programming.
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