BACKUS, JOHN WARNER


Meaning of BACKUS, JOHN WARNER in English

born Dec. 3, 1924, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.

U.S. mathematician.

He received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Columbia University. He was head of a small group that in 1957 developed the computer language FORTRAN for numerical analysis. He contributed to the development of ALGOL and developed a notation known as the Backus Normal, or Backus-Naur, Form for defining the syntax of a programmable language (1959). He received the Turing Award in 1977.

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia.      Краткая энциклопедия Британика.