The Origins of Fortran

Our modern world is full of software, it's what makes everything tick. The sheer amount of code that goes into something like keeping the internet running is staggering. Programming isn't the easiest profession, but there was a time when it was much much harder. It took a huge shift in thinking, and some impressive feats of software development, to make complicated programming possible. And that shift started in the 1950s.

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Important dates in this episode:

1951: Grace Hopper Creates A-0 Compiler 1954: John Backus Starts FORTRAN Project at IBM 1957: First FORTARN Compiler Ships