1906 – 1992United States
Grace Hopper
A compiler is a function machine: words in, actions out.
A short story
An American mathematician and computer scientist who built one of the world's first compilers: a programme that reads a rule written in human words and turns it into the actions a computer can carry out. Her compiler made it possible to write programmes about what you want done, not about which switches to flip. Every function in every programme you'll ever use traces back through Hopper's work.
In their own words
It is much easier to apologise than it is to get permission. But it is much, much easier to test a rule than to argue about it.
Paraphrased: from Grace Hopper's lectures on programming, 1980s.
The lab their idea turned into
Mill Lab
Drop a number in. Watch what comes out.
Open Mill Lab →