John Backus

Also known as John Warner Backus, John W. Backus

American computer scientist (1924–2007)

AI overview

John Backus was an American computer scientist who lived from 1924 to 2007 and made significant contributions to the field of computing. He is best known for his work on early programming languages and computer systems that helped shape how we write software today.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Works: 3

Top works

THE ACOUSTICAL FOUNDATIONS OF MUSIC - MUSICAL SOUND
Questions and Problems for the Acoustical Foundations of Music
The acoustical foundations of music

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Music · MusicBrainz

Type: Person
Country: DE
Active from: 1937-09-12
Active to: 2019-02-21

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Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners: 2
Total plays: 2

via Last.fm · John Backus

Recent publications · Crossref

5 total works indexed

Generalized Gradient Approximation Made Simple
· 1996 · cited 200,201x
Highly accurate protein structure prediction with AlphaFold
· 2021 · cited 41,536x
Gene Ontology: tool for the unification of biology
· 2000 · cited 36,305x
Matplotlib: A 2D Graphics Environment
· 2007 · cited 34,191x
The MOS 36-ltem Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36)
· 1992 · cited 28,820x

via Crossref · CC0

Quotes

“Von Neumann languages do not have useful properties for reasoning about programs. Axiomatic and denotational semantics are precise tools for describing and understanding conventional programs, but they only talk about them and cannot alter their ungainly properties. Unlike von Neumann languages, the language of ordinary algebra is suitable both for stating its laws and for transforming an equation into its solution, all within the "language."”
“Much of my work has come from being lazy. I didn't like writing programs, and so, when I was working on the IBM 701 (an early computer), writing programs for computing missile trajectories, I started work on a programming system to make it easier to write programs.”
“You need the willingness to fail all the time. You have to generate many ideas and then you have to work very hard only to discover that they don’t work. And you keep doing that over and over until you find one that does work .”

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Wikidata facts

Image: John Backus 2.jpg

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date of birth: 1924-12-03
date of death: 2007-03-17
Erdős number: 5
streaming media URL: www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102657954
Commons category: John Backus
birth name: John Warner Backus
name in native language: John Warner Backus

Sources (5)

via Wikidata · CC0

~7 min read

Article

John Warner Backus (December 3, 1924 – March 17, 2007) 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?"

The IEEE awarded Backus the W. W. McDowell Award in 1967 for the development of FORTRAN. He received the National Medal of Science in 1975 and the 1977 ACM Turing Award "for profound, influential, and lasting contributions to the design of practical high-level programming systems, notably through his work on FORTRAN, and for publication of formal procedures for the specification of programming languages".