Fortran creator John W. Backus passes away at age 82
By Donald Melanson 
posted Mar 20th 2007 12:57PM
posted Mar 20th 2007 12:57PM
The New York Times is reporting that John W. Backus, who led the team at IBM that developed the Fortran programming language, died Saturday at the age of 82. Since its release in 1957, Fortran has widely come to be considered to be a turning point in the history of computer software, with Backus himself receiving the ACM Turing Award in 1977 and the Draper Prize in 1993 for his work. Backus also invented the so-called "Backus-Naur form," which became the de facto standard for defining formal language syntax. The exact cause of his death is apparently not known, with Backus's family only saying they believe it to be the result of old age.[Via MetaFilter]
My condolences to his family.
Look, I'm sorry that this is in bad taste, but it would have read pretty funny if the last line read:
"The exact cause of his death is apparently not known, with Backus's family only saying they believe it to be the result of a floating point error.
See you at the crossroads.
I did program in FORTRAN back in the day, and I always loved the Backus-Naur form. One of the true CS pioneers is gone. But he can rest in peace knowing that he positively influenced the work of so many others that are following in his footsteps...
This is sad, unfortunately we're reaching a point where a lot of the pioneers of the technologies we use today are going to be passing away.
I very much believe he would have appreciated that joke. I would if the same joke were made about me after my death.
Interestingly enough, I started brewing a batch of beer this weekend that I have named "Olde Fortran" (stole the name a beer in the first episode of Futurama). I'll drink to the memory of John Backus!
Old age is always fatal.
I knew one of Backus' Fortran team members, Roy Nutt who founded CSC, he died in the 90's. The CSC brat pack included Shelly Sidrane and George Baird, along with one other, I don't remember his name now. As a kid I watched them play softball in an El Segundo park near the headquarters.
I am Shelly Sidrane's daughter Cindy. I too remember watching the softball games at El Sequndo Park as a child and cut my eyeteeth on the computer systems of the 60's when my father often brought me to work with him off hours. Are you Linda or Laurie Baird?
I'd guess the other member of the pack you recall was Bob Paul. Mr. Paul was CSC's first employee and good friends with the lot. He passed away this last January.
His obituary
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/19/obituaries/20cnd-backus.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
I dated a guy who combined ALGOL and FORTRAN into a language he named ALTRAN. Did it in high school back in 64. Crazy smart. Backus was our hero.
@ Strider, that was brilliant.
Well he exceeded the 72 character limit.....
and I'm sure he would appreciate that one. He will be long remembered - and by me too, I cut my teeth on Fortran back in the 60's and have been having fun ever since as a result. Sad news.