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John Backus (1924-2007) led the team at [[IBM]] that developed Fortran, the first successful sophisticated programming language.

'''John Backus''' (1924-2007) led the team at [[IBM]] that developed Fortran, the first successful sophisticated programming language.

[[FORTRAN]], which stands for Formula Translator, became the standard language for writing programs for several decades.  All computer scientists learned it in the 1960s and 1970s.  [[Ken Thompson]], who along with Dennis Ritchie created the Unix operating system in 1969, declared that "95 percent of the people who programmed in the early years would never have done it without Fortran.  It was a massive step."<ref>"John W. Backus, 82, Fortran Developer, Dies," N.Y. Times (Mar. 20, 2007).</ref>

[[FORTRAN]], which stands for Formula Translator, became the standard language for writing programs for several decades.  All computer scientists learned it in the 1960s and 1970s.  [[Ken Thompson]], who along with Dennis Ritchie created the Unix operating system in 1969, declared that "95 percent of the people who programmed in the early years would never have done it without Fortran.  It was a massive step."<ref>"John W. Backus, 82, Fortran Developer, Dies," N.Y. Times (Mar. 20, 2007).</ref>