Mother of Compilers
As I finished reading the article and a brief documentary about her life and work, I can only say I'm genuinely surprised about all the contributions that Dr. Grace Brewster Murray Hopper gave to computer science. I had no idea who she was nor what she did in her long career.
Reading through the article I the only thing that wasn't surprising to me was the fact that she was originally a mathemathician rather than a programmer. I found this pretty common because if there is one thing all the fathers and mothers of current computing have in common is that they all have crazy logical and mathematical abilities. So yeah, I guessed since the beginning she surely was a mathematician.
However from there on, the article and the documentary were one surprise after another. I found quite funny the entry on her diary about finding the first "actual" bug in a program, refering to a moth that got fried in the computer's hardware. I cannot imagine how she had the ability to create the first compiler out of a machine that was basically arithmetic operations rather than logic-driven language.
But the thing I admired the most of her biography was the determination and passion for doing what she loved that she had and shared with everyone. Despite being "too old" to stay in the Navy at 40 years old, she proved to be too valuable of an asset to cut loose, and was recluted back at 60 years old, and apart from all of this, she kept teaching people in her spare time about programming. I envy all those fortunates who had the opportunity to go to one of her many lectures and learn directly from her. She was, without a doubt, a woman beyond her era, and an invaluable piece of computer and science history.
Reading through the article I the only thing that wasn't surprising to me was the fact that she was originally a mathemathician rather than a programmer. I found this pretty common because if there is one thing all the fathers and mothers of current computing have in common is that they all have crazy logical and mathematical abilities. So yeah, I guessed since the beginning she surely was a mathematician.
However from there on, the article and the documentary were one surprise after another. I found quite funny the entry on her diary about finding the first "actual" bug in a program, refering to a moth that got fried in the computer's hardware. I cannot imagine how she had the ability to create the first compiler out of a machine that was basically arithmetic operations rather than logic-driven language.
But the thing I admired the most of her biography was the determination and passion for doing what she loved that she had and shared with everyone. Despite being "too old" to stay in the Navy at 40 years old, she proved to be too valuable of an asset to cut loose, and was recluted back at 60 years old, and apart from all of this, she kept teaching people in her spare time about programming. I envy all those fortunates who had the opportunity to go to one of her many lectures and learn directly from her. She was, without a doubt, a woman beyond her era, and an invaluable piece of computer and science history.
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