<
person> US Navy Rear Admiral
Grace Brewster Hopper
(1906-12-09 to 1992-01-01), née
Grace Brewster Murray.
Hopper is believed to have concieved the concept of the
compiler with the
A-0 in 1952. She also developed the
first commercial
high-level language, which eventually
evolved into
COBOL. She worked on the
Mark I computer
with Howard Aiken and with
BINAC in 1949.
She is credited with having coined the term "debug", and the
adage "it is always easier to ask forgiveness than it is to
get permission" (with various wordings), which has been the
guiding principle in
sysadmin decisions ever since.
See also the entries
debug and
bug.
Hopper is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. In 1994, the
US Navy named a new ship, the guided-missile destroyer {
USS
Hopper (http://hopper.navy.mil/)}, after her.
(1999-06-29)