Inventors
Grace Hopper
1906–1992 · Compiler as a bridge to English
United States
Hopper insisted that machines could be instructed in something closer to English, and helped build the compilers and COBOL culture that made that ordinary. A computer that only mathematicians can talk to is a room. A computer that clerks can talk to is infrastructure. She turned that wheel.
Why it mattered
- Moved programming toward human language.
- Treated debugging as a professional craft (including the famous moth log).
