# RIP John Backus 1924-2007
**URL:** https://forums.speedlife.net/t/rip-john-backus-1924-2007/26220
**Category:** NYSpeed Off Topic
**Created:** [March 21, 2007, 7:38am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/rip-john-backus-1924-2007/26220 "2007-03-21T07:38:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Fry](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Fry)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2007, 7:38am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/rip-john-backus-1924-2007/26220/1 "2007-03-21T07:38:55Z")
Some consider him the father of moden programming. He developed ForTran at IBM in the 1950’s.
> Shortly before graduating, Backus toured the IBM offices in midtown Manhattan and came across the company’s [**Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator**](javascript:siteSearch(‘Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator’);), an early computer stuffed with 13,000 vacuum tubes.
> But he tired of hand-coding the [hardware](http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,259971,00.html#), and in 1954 he got his bosses to let him assemble a team that could design an easier system.
> The result, Fortran, short for Formula Translation, reduced the number of programming statements necessary to operate a machine by a factor of 20.
[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,259971,00.html](http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,259971,00.html)
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### Author:  [@neurokinetik](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/neurokinetik)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2007, 4:20pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/rip-john-backus-1924-2007/26220/2 "2007-03-21T16:20:26Z")
Mr Magoo? Oh wait, that was _Jim_ Backus… 😉
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### Author:  [@Dex](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Dex)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2007, 3:11pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/rip-john-backus-1924-2007/26220/3 "2007-03-22T15:11:57Z")
we talked about this in programming class. could you imagine the genius one must have to be that innovative?