John Backus
John Backus
John Warner Backus was a pioneering American computer scientist best known for his work in developing the FORTRAN programming language and the Backus-Naur Form (BNF).
Early Life
Born on December 3, 1924, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Backus initially studied at the University of Virginia before dropping out. He later attended Columbia University, where he graduated with a degree in mathematics.
Career at IBM
Backus joined IBM in 1950, where he made significant contributions to the field of computer science. His most notable work was leading the team that developed FORTRAN, the first high-level programming language, which was released in 1957. FORTRAN revolutionized computing by allowing complex mathematical formulas to be translated into code.
FORTRAN
FORTRAN, short for "Formula Translation," is a third-generation, compiled, imperative programming language. It was especially suited for numeric computation and scientific computing. The language became widely used in various fields, including engineering, physics, and computational chemistry.
Backus-Naur Form
In addition to FORTRAN, Backus co-developed the Backus-Naur Form (BNF) with Peter Naur. BNF is a notation technique for context-free grammars, often used to describe the syntax of programming languages. It has become a standard in defining the structure of languages and is widely used in compiler construction and language design.
Turing Award
In 1977, John Backus was awarded the Turing Award, often referred to as the "Nobel Prize of Computing," for his profound contributions to the field. His Turing Award lecture, titled "Can Programming Be Liberated from the von Neumann Style?", was highly influential and advocated for functional programming paradigms.
Legacy
John Backus's work laid the foundation for modern computing and programming languages. His innovations in creating high-level languages and formal syntax notations have had a lasting impact on the field. Backus retired from IBM in 1991 and passed away on March 17, 2007, in Ashland, Oregon.
Related Topics
John Backus's contributions continue to influence computer science, making him a pivotal figure in the history of technology.