The Mother of Compilers


I’ve always been curious about how programming has evolved into what we know today, from zeros and ones to an actual language. So, I was immensely surprised when I discovered how much was accomplished by a single person: Grace Hopper. Her entire life is admirable in so many different ways.
Being a woman who wanted to study math and science should’ve been very hard, let alone being in the navy in a high position, however she was able to fight against all odds and even got the honor of being an admiral. That said, though her fight against all women prejudices is an outstanding feat, her contributions to programming languages are what made me go from respecting her to truly admire her.
She wasn’t afraid that proposing such a weird idea as writing programs using human language would make her a victim of skeptical opinions. She wanted everyone was able to write programs without needing deep knowledge in math. She knew there was a lot of potential for the new generations to create something beyond the limits.
Learning about her life made me think how different our lives would be without a compiler. Though it’s pretty possible someone else would eventually develop a compiler, it would take some time. Without compilers, programming would be more difficult than what we’re used to, which means traveling to the Moon wouldn’t happen on 1969, videogames would simply not exist or be simpler, Internet would be a far cry compared to the tool we have nowadays and a long etc.
In the end, the best we can do to honor the effort of people like this talented woman is to build in the bases they gave us. We can expand on their knowledge to go beyond limitations and make life more comfortable for the future generations.

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