Although this is Alan Turing's year we shouldn't forget the many other remarkable people who have contributed to the development of our universal machines. None are more remarkable than Grace Hopper who was a pioneering programmer. She developed the first high-level programming language, which went on to form the basis of Cobol, and also therefore the first compiler. A new biography called Grace Hopper and the Invention of the Information Age by Kurt Beyer has recently been published and is reviewed in the Guardian - it sounds like a great read.
I just came across this wonderful video clip of Rear Admiral (retired) Grace Hopper on the Letterman show. Who is she you ask? Grace Hopper is one of the most famous women in the history of computing. She programmed the Harvard Mark 1 during WWII. She discovered the first computer bug, literally a moth that had got caught in a relay. She programmed the UNIVAC after the war and developed the first high-level programming language, FLOW-MATIC, which was the basis for COBOL. As a necessity she also had to invent the first compiler to translate FLOW-MATIC code into machine code. Semi-retired she consulted for many computing companies and she has a US naval destroyer named in her honor. A truly remarkable woman.
