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John W. Backus Dies at 82; Developed FORTRAN

Posted by kdawson on from the go-to-considered-seminal dept.

A number of readers let us know of the passing of John W. Backus, who assembled a team to develop FORTRAN at IBM in the 1950s. It was the first widely used high-level language. Backus later worked on a "function-level" programming language, FP, which was described in his Turing Award lecture "Can Programming be Liberated from the von Neumann Style?" and is viewed as Backus's apology for creating FORTRAN. He received the 1977 ACM Turing Award "for profound, influential, and lasting contributions to the design of practical high-level programming systems, notably through his work on FORTRAN, and for seminal publication of formal procedures for the specification of programming languages."

18 of 271 comments (clear)

  1. Wow. by Mikachu · · Score: 2, Funny
    FTA:

    His daughter Karen Backus announced the death, saying the family did not know the cause, other than age.

    Psh, he developed FORTRAN. I'm surprised he even lived to 82 without being killed by a rabid programmer. ;)
    1. Re:Wow. by dr_dank · · Score: 3, Funny

      I'm even more inclined to thank him for playing both Mr. Howell and Mr. Magoo.

      --
      Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
  2. Worst headline ever by WWWWolf · · Score: 5, Funny

    John W. Backus Dies at 82; Developed FORTRAN

    This has to be the worst Slashdot headline ever. Makes FORTRAN sound like a type of cancer or something. (I thought that stuff was more of COBOL's league.)

    1. Re:Worst headline ever by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      To me, it sounds like he is one of the few actual undead coder zombies out there.

    2. Re:Worst headline ever by JonathanR · · Score: 1, Funny

      FORTRAN is a cancer. Not yet in remission, either.

  3. So he developed FORTRAN as he died, huh? by mushadv · · Score: 5, Funny

    What does that entail? Did he hemorrhage "WRITE (6,7) 7 FORMAT(12H GOD DAMN IT)" and flatline? What about his death rattle? "STOP END"?

  4. Re:Also known for... by MichaelSmith · · Score: 4, Funny

    Truly an American icon. Even if you never ran LEXX or YACC in your life, Backus's impact on contemporary culture cannot be denied.

    Many times I have edited lex and yacc code, but never have I understood what the hell I was doing.

    --
    http://michaelsmith.id.au
  5. The Tombstone by Nerdfest · · Score: 5, Funny

    GOTO END or , for those that believe in reincarnation: GOSUB END

    1. Re:The Tombstone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Old programmers don't die. They just GOSUB without RETURN.

  6. It's a hoax by Bastard+of+Subhumani · · Score: 3, Funny

    Nothing on Netcraft yet.

    --
    Only three things are certain; death, taxes, and apocryphal quotations - Ben Franklin.
  7. BNF by mrogers · · Score: 5, Funny

    Backus is also the B in BNF. Many will mourn his parsing.

  8. obligatory by marafa · · Score: 2, Funny

    was he related to A Backus?

    --
    _ In Egypt Networks: Network Solutions with a Twist
  9. Re:Also known for... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Push another one onto the stack of computing gods. Someday during the final battle between men and AI we will have to pop that stack. Lets hope it is a long way off. And lets hope that Dijkstra isn't too angry at being close to Backus in the great stack in the sky. The irony of being in a stack with Backus would kill him with its irony if he weren't already dead.

  10. Re:We Stand On The Shoulders of Giants by aussie_a · · Score: 4, Funny

    2060s dude, he's a time traveler. Although you don't want to know the cataclysm that forces future programmers to write in FORTRAN *shudder*

  11. Re:What do you know? by LeninZhiv · · Score: 2, Funny

    Indeedandhi s i nsight fulidea ofre mov nig thesigni ficanc e o f s p aces be tweenwo rdsw as real lyah eado fits time. :-)

  12. Re:Fond Memories of FORTRAN IV by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Yes - the cards. And that feeling like you were gambling when you waited to see if the thing ran or not ...

  13. Re:Also known for... by hey! · · Score: 4, Funny

    Many times I have edited lex and yacc code, but never have I understood what the hell I was doing.


    Well fear not. I think far fewer programmers today are familiar with BNF than back in the day when anyone who was not utterly worthless had a dog eared copy of The Unix Programming Environment. This means the end of all those tersely documented syntaxes, and with them those cryptic yacc scripts.

    Modern system designers have taken a clean sheet approach to the problem of grammar, one which escapes the limits of technology in Backus' generation, when computing power was scarce relative to brain power. Today you are much more likely to be called upon to work with XML schemas, which follows a simple easily understood philosophy: if something is worth saying, then it is worth saying with a lot words.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  14. Re:Also known for... by idontgno · · Score: 5, Funny

    if something is worth saying, then it is worth saying with a lot words.

    I like the corollary more: "XML is like violence. If it's not working, you're not using enough of it."

    --
    Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.