John Backus was an American computer scientist who led the IBM team that designed and implemented Fortran, released in 1957 and generally regarded as the first widely used high level programming language, letting scientists and engineers write programs in something closer to mathematical notation instead of machine instructions. He later developed Backus Naur Form, a notation for describing the grammar of a programming language that remains in standard use, and received the 1977 ACM Turing Award for his contributions to high level programming systems, notably Fortran.
Facts
AwardCharles Stark Draper Prize 2 Awardhonorary doctorate of the Henri Poincaré University 2 AwardW. Wallace McDowell Award 2 AwardComputer History Museum Fellow 2 AwardProgramming Languages Achievement Award 2 AwardFellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 2 AwardNational Medal of Science 2 FAQs
What was John Backus's 1977 Turing Award lecture about?
It presented his function-level programming research and is sometimes viewed as his apology for creating Fortran.
Backus used the lecture, titled "Can Programming Be Liberated from the von Neumann Style?", to present his research into function-level programming, the approach behind his language FP. It is sometimes viewed as his apology for creating Fortran. The paper did less to build interest in FP itself than to spark research into functional programming in general, and his message was mostly misunderstood as being the same as the traditional functional programming style. He later developed a successor language, FL, as an internal IBM research project.
Connections
Associated With
The 1957 FORTRAN compiler by his IBM team is generally credited as the first unambiguously complete compiler.
Source Wikipedia: Compiler
Source Wikipedia: Formal Methods
John Backus led the team that designed Fortran and co-developed Backus-Naur Form, the notation for formally specifying a programming language's grammar that underlies most later work in programming language theory.
Source ACM A.M. Turing Award Citations
In Field
Source ACM A.M. Turing Award Citations
Invented
Source ALGOL 58 (Wikipedia)
John Backus devised the notation to describe ALGOL 60's grammar at the 1959 ACM conference.
Source FL (programming language) (Wikipedia)
Source Wikidata: Fortran
Additional Source ACM A.M. Turing Award Citations
In the Other Atlases
Nationality
Also in Geography Atlas: the nationality of this subject.
Sources
1. Computer: A History of the Information Machine
Martin Campbell-Kelly and William Aspray, Basic Books, 1996
2. John Backus (Wikidata)
Wikidata alias: John Warner Backus
John Warner Backus
Wikidata P166: Harold Pender Award
Wikidata P166 (award received): Harold Pender Award.
Wikidata P166: Charles Stark Draper Prize
Wikidata P166 (award received): Charles Stark Draper Prize.
Wikidata P166: honorary doctorate of the Henri Poincaré University
Wikidata P166 (award received): honorary doctorate of the Henri Poincaré University.
Wikidata P166: Turing Award
Wikidata P166 (award received): Turing Award.
Wikidata P166: W. Wallace McDowell Award
Wikidata P166 (award received): W. Wallace McDowell Award.
Wikidata P166: Computer History Museum Fellow
Wikidata P166 (award received): Computer History Museum Fellow.
Wikidata P166: Programming Languages Achievement Award
Wikidata P166 (award received): Programming Languages Achievement Award.
Wikidata P166: IBM Fellow
Wikidata P166 (award received): IBM Fellow.
Wikidata P166: Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Wikidata P166 (award received): Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Wikidata P166: IRI Achievement Award
Wikidata P166 (award received): IRI Achievement Award.
Wikidata P166: National Medal of Science
Wikidata P166 (award received): National Medal of Science.
Wikidata alias: John W. Backus
John W. Backus
P569 (date of birth): 1924-12-03
1924-12-03
P570 (date of death): 2007-03-17
2007-03-17
View the SourceACM A.M. Turing Award Citations
Association for Computing MachineryCitation
For profound, influential, and lasting contributions to the design of practical high-level programming systems, notably through his work on FORTRAN, and for seminal publication of formal procedures for the specification of programming languages.
- In Field: Software Engineering
- Invented: Fortran
- Associated With: Programming Language Theory
View the Source Wikipedia: John Backus
Wikimedia FoundationEarly lifeQuote, Early life
He led the team that invented and implemented FORTRAN, the first widely used high-level programming language, and was the inventor of the Backus-Naur form (BNF).
Wikipedia: Compiler
Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Compiler, History sectionQuote, Associated With: Compiler, History section
In 1957, they completed a FORTRAN compiler that is generally credited as having introduced the first unambiguously complete compiler.
Wikipedia: Formal Methods
Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Formal Methods, Specification sectionQuote, Associated With: Formal Methods, Specification section
In the ALGOL 58 report, John Backus presented a formal notation for describing programming language syntax, later named Backus normal form then renamed Backus-Naur form (BNF).
FL (programming language) (Wikipedia)
Invented: FL (programming language), Lead sectionQuote, Invented: FL (programming language), Lead section
FL (for Function Level) is a programming language created at IBM Research - Almaden, California by John Backus, John Williams, and Edward Wimmers in the 1980s and documented in a report from 1989. FL was designed as a successor of Backus's earlier FP language, providing specific support for what Backus termed function-level programming.
ALGOL 58 (Wikipedia)
Invented: ALGOL 58, Infobox: designersQuote, Invented: ALGOL 58, Infobox: designers
Friedrich L. Bauer, Hermann Bottenbruch, Heinz Rutishauser, Klaus Samelson, John Backus, Charles Katz, Alan Perlis, Joseph Henry Wegstein
Essays About This Entity (1 essay)
Fortran: The Bet Behind Formula Translation
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.