Grace Hopper Murray

Grace Hopper Murray

Using a computer has never been easier as it is today. We are able to create, edit and store documents. We have the means to organize, file, and save the special events in our life by storing our pictures in the thousands and even in the millions all in one device. Not only are we able to purchase such device at a very low cost but also come in many different sizes and form. All I have mentioned was made possible, and still continue to evolve, thanks to many computer scientists such as Grace Hopper Murray. There was a time when using a computer was only possible to a specific population, but she was among those who led the path to building this convenience. Thanks to her, she was able to help develop the first compiler that became the precursor to the widely used programming language COBOL.

Grace was ahead of her time and because of her unconventional ways, even with their unusual nature for women of her day, she made “important advances in reducing errors by creating a program that translates programmer’s code to computer language” (PBS). Since machine languages consist of numbers only, this makes it almost impossible for humans to read and write them. Programming languages had been developed to allow programmers to substitute names for numbers. In order to use names rather than numbers, assembly languages lay between the machine languages and programming languages. Assembly languages have the same structure and set of commands as machine languages but allows programmers to use names. Each system has its own machine language and assembly language but an assembly language created specifically for one system won’t run on another. This is where Grace made her mark. She helped develop the first compiler, also known as an assembly language, generally used for the programming language COBOL. The programming language COBOL was very important in her time because it “brought computer use and data processing into the world of commerce” (PBS). Its acronym stands for “common business oriented language”.

Programming languages are generally referred to as high-level languages because they have their own vocabulary and set of grammatical rules. Each language has its own unique set of keywords and syntax in order to organize programming instructions and enables the computer to understand.