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Oral History of John Backus

Computer History Museum · interview · Watch on YouTube

History of computingTech pioneers & interviewsCompilers, interpreters & program analysis

What it is

Grady Booch interviews John Backus, who led the IBM team that created FORTRAN in 1957, for the Computer History Museum in 2006. Backus describes the development of the first successful high-level language and its compiler. The interview runs 88 minutes.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN recommends it because hearing pioneers explain early computing in their own words conveys the context and excitement of the era.

  • 1 people recommended it
  • 1 different months
  • 1 strong recommendations
  • first 2019, last 2026

What HN commenters said

  1. “Hearing concepts explained by those who pioneered them really brings them home”

    Pioneer explains the context and excitement of early computing and Fortran.

    charlysl, 2019-07 · Strong recommendation · in “Fernando Corbató, a Father of Your Computer (and Your Password), Has Died”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: john backus, fortran, computer history, ibm, grady booch

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