Women in History

Who invented the first user-friendly business programming language, COBOL or Common business -Oriented Language – Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper.

Grace Hopper was born in 1906. Grace Hopper’s importance in computers was in her development of the computer compiler. Her compiler freed programmers from having to write repetitive codes and ensured fewer errors. Rather than having programmers repeat each set of instructions every time particular instructions were needed, instructions that were common to all programs were available in the computer’s own memory and could be referred to when needed.

Grace Hopper pioneered the use of natural language in programming which lead to the creation of COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language) for the UNIVAC, the first commercial electronic computer. Disregarding the naysayers who said English couldn’t be used to instruct computers, Hopper went on to prove them wrong using well-known English words to write computer code.

Hopper was promoted to the rank of commodore in 1983, and later to Admiral. Grace Hopper died in 1992.

COBOL, although and old and often thought of as dead language, is still used today. It has been modified over the past 40 years but it is still used in major banking institutes, manufacturing institutes, insurance companies, and other large companies. Some people believe COBOL will never die and COBOL writers will be in high demand over the next few years as many colleges have stopped teaching the language.

source IT World