In article "John Knight" <johnknight at usa.com> writes:
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<"Tom Breton" <tehom at REMOVEpanNOSPAMix.com> wrote in message
<news:m33cukk4kb.fsf at panix.com...
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<Well said, Tom!
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<We also know that those who claim Hopper "invented" a compiler, don't know
<what they're talking about, because of their use of the term "invented". A
<more appropriate term would have been "developed", since there were many
<people involved in developing software which other people used as a template
<for their own contributions.
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<It might also have been a more credible claim if they'd said that a woman
<who worked in industry "developed" "one of the first compilers", rather than
<claiming that a public servant "invented compilers".
The first specification for COBOL was developed in 1959 by the Conference on
Data Systems Language, or CODASYL. Conference was made up of people from
business and government.
Admiral Grace Hopper chaired the conference and is considered to be the
mother of COBOL. Much of COBOL was the direct results of her insight and
understanding.
By the way John, the ACM, which is *the* professional society for
computer scientists, gives a Grace Murray Hopper Award. Annually, assuming
there's someone deserving of the honor that year. It hss gone to the
likes of Donald Knuth and Richard Stallman. You think the ACM doesn't
know the history of their own field?
-- cary
