John Backus

John W. Backus (1924-2007) was an American computer scientist and inventor. He led the team at IBM that developed the programming language FORTRAN, one of the first high-level programming languages. Backus' work in language design and compiler development made programming more accessible and efficient, revolutionizing the field of software development.

Led the team that created FORTRAN (Formula Translation), the first practical high-level programming language, and formulated the Backus–Naur form that described the formal language syntax.

John Warner Backus was an American computer scientist. He led the team that invented and implemented FORTRAN, the first widely used high-level programming language, and was the inventor of the Backus–Naur form (BNF), a widely used notation to define syntaxes of formal languages. He also contributed to the design of ALGOL, and later researched the function-level programming paradigm, presenting his findings in his influential 1977 Turing Award lecture "Can Programming Be Liberated from the von Neumann Style?"

• He led the team that invented and implemented FORTRAN, the first widely used high-level programming language, and was the inventor of the Backus–Naur form (BNF), a widely used notation to define syntaxes of formal languages.