Mother of Compilers

I am happy that since Programming Languages course I took last semester, I had the opportunity to know more about women in computer science. Most of the people in our field (at least students) mainly know about important MEN in computer science. Steve Wozniack, Tim Berners-Lee, Dennis Ritchie, Bill Gates, Alan Turing (well, this case is different due to his sexual orientation but history has finally make him justice), etc. 

For me, it is an honor that the first programmers were women, but also it makes me angry because the only reason they were allowed to work there was for the reason that computer science, was not an official discipline, which later put the women out of the equation when men began to involve. In this week's blog activity, we were assigned an article and a short video documentary which talk about Grace Hopper. 

COBOL seems like going really away of the modern day, but it is important to know that this language was one of the first high programming language focusing mainly in development rather than other tasks with hardware and electrical engineering. Computer problems need to be addressed using only instructions to accelerate attending country's and business needs. 

Today, I am quite intimidated by COBOL, but I know people are willingly to pay a fortune for brave and bold people who would like to embrace an adventure with one of the most important sector (the banks, obviously) who still use this language. I am more of a Python and Javascript guy (even though I work at Oracle, ironically). 

Concluding, Grace Hopper is an example of inspiration among men and women who left a really good legacy, hopefully to inspire more women to study or at least be involved in computer science field. And for the men who are reading this and have watched the videodocumentary or read the article, to try to invite and share this story to all. 

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