Grace Hopper Dead
Built the A-0 system (1952) — the first compiler — then led the design of COBOL's English-like syntax.
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Wrote the first compiler (A-0, 1952), led FLOW-MATIC, pushed COBOL into existence, and spent 43 years in the Navy — retiring as rear admiral with a destroyer (USS Hopper) named for her.\n\n'It's easier to ask forgiveness than permission' is hers; the nanosecond she handed out — a foot of wire — is computing's best physical metaphor.