Grace Hopper and the Invention of the Information Age
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3. Hopper, interview by Uta Merzbach, 11 February 1969, 13 (COH-SI); Hopper, “Keynote Address” (HPL, 3–8).
4. On 17–19 May 1990, a three-day conference on the UNIVAC computer was held under the sponsorship of the Smithsonian Institution. The conference brought together 30 computer pioneers to discuss their UNIVAC experiences. The historians of technology Michael Mahoney and Paul Ceruzzi moderated the discussions.
5. Shuler had to take personal leave in order to visit Eckert-Mauchly and see the machine firsthand. UNIVAC Conference, 17 May 1990 (OHC-CB, OH-200), 8.
6. Frederick Miller, interview by Henry Tropp, 14 April 1972 (COH-SI).
7. John Mauchly to Al Seares, December 1950 (John Mauchly Papers, 3:C:1); Mauchly, “Recent Events,” 14 May 1953 (JMP, 3:C:3, 57).
8. Mitchell to Sales Division, Remington Rand, 16 November 1950 (HOL, 94–23)
9. Jean Bartik and Frances Holberton, interview by Henry Tropp, 27 April 1973 (COH-SI), 138–139.
10. Ibid., 138; UNIVAC Conference, 17 May 1990 (OHC-CB, OH-200), 13.
11. Adele Mildred Koss, interview by Kathy Kleiman, 19 May 1993 (WFGP), 25.
12. Grace Hopper, interview, 1 October 1982 (WFGP), 42.
13. Grace Hopper, interview by Christopher Evans, 1976 (OHC-CB, OH-81), 19.
14. Hopper appears to have learned from the mistakes of Mauchly and Eckert, and to have vigorously documented the development of automatic programming from its inception. Her primary motivation, however, was to spread her ideas to the programming community rapidly.
15. Grace Hopper, “Keynote Address,” (HPL, 3–8), 24.
16. Grace Hopper, “The Education of a Computer,” presented at meeting of Association of Computing Machinery, 2–3 May 1952 (GHP, 5–10).
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. It seems reasonable to speculate that the factory metaphor was a direct result of her experiences at the Harvard Computation Laboratory. Aiken (who had worked in the electric-power industry) often stated that the process of “makin’ numbers” was no different than generating electricity.
20. Hopper, “The Education of a Computer” (GHP, 5–10).
21. In the case of UNIVAC I, the compiler produced Holberton’s C-10 machine code.
22. The word “catalogue” most likely comes from Wilkes. On page 25 of The Preparation of Programs, Wilkes describes a loose-leaf binder that his team used to keep track of subroutine information. A loose-leaf binder was used so that new sheets could be inserted as subroutines were added to the library.
23. Hopper, “The Education of a Computer” (GHP, 5–10).
24. Ibid.
25. Hopper, “The Education of a Computer” (GHP, 5–10).
26. Richard Ridgway, “Compiling Routines,” presented at meeting of Association of Computing Machinery, 8–9 September 1952 (GHP, 6–1).
27. Ibid.
28. Ibid.
29. Ibid.
30. Grace Hopper, “Developments in Compiling Techniques to 31 December 1953,” memorandum, 31 December 1953 (GHP, 6–1).
31. Hopper, “Keynote Address,” 1–3 June 1978 (HPL, 3–8), 24.
32. “The A-2 Computer System Operating Manual,” 15 November 1953 (GHP, 6–1), 53.
33. Ibid.
34. Hopper, “Keynote Address,” 1–3 June 1978 (HPL, 3–8), 25.
35. “The A-2 Computer System Operating Manual,” 15 November 1953 (GHP 6–1); Nora Moser to Margaret Harper, 22 January 1954 (HOL, 94–13)
36. Grace Hopper, “Compiling Routines,” Computers and Automation 2, no. 4 (May 1953) (GHP, 5–11), 1–5.
37. Ibid.
38. Grace Hopper, interview by Christopher Evans, 1976, 14 (OHC-CB, OH-81). Though this quote comes from an interview during the 1970s, Hopper’s vision that programming had to become more democratic, that is, available to more users, was a central theme in most of her writing during the 1950s.
39. Hopper, “Compiling Routines.”
40. Ibid., 3.
41. Hopper, “Keynote Address,” 1–3 June 1978 (HPL, 3–8), 27.
42. Emil Schell to Grace Hopper, 14 December 1953 (GHP, 6–1).
43. Nora Moser to Grace Hopper, 15 February 1954 (HOL, 94–13).
44. Margaret Harper to Nora Moser, 10 February 1954 (HOL, 94–13).
45. “Second Workshop on UNIVAC Automatic Programming,” 1 December 1953 (GHP, 6–1).
46. On the concept of “technological framework,” see The Social Construction of Technological Systems, ed. Bijker et al.
47. Adele Mildred Koss, interview by Kathy Kleiman, 19 May 1993, 23 (WIC); Hopper, “Compiling Routines,” 4; Grace Hopper and John Mauchly, “Influence of Programming Techniques on the Design of Computers” Proceedings of the I.R.E. 41, no. 10 (October 1953): 1253.
48. The differentiator was Kahrimanian’s doctoral thesis at Temple University.
49. Hopper, “Developments in Compiling Techniques to 31 December 1953” (internal Remington Rand report; GHP, 6–1).
50. Carl Hammer, interview by James Ross, 15 April 1983 (OHC-CB, OH-56), 16.
51. Ibid.
52. Herb Grosch is best known for “Grosch’s Law,” which states that computer power increases at the square of the cost. In business terms, this means that in order to perform a computation twice as cheaply one must do it four times as fast.
53. Hopper, interview, 1976, 16, 19 (OHC-CB, OH-81). On technological momentum, see Thomas P. Hughes, “The Evolution of Large Technological Systems,” in The Social Construction of Technological Systems, ed. Bijker et al.
54. John Backus, “Programming in America in the 1950s—Some Personal Impressions,” in A History of Computing in the Twentieth Century, ed. Metropolis et al., 127–128.
55. Hopper, interview, 1976 (OHC-CB, OH-81), 14.
56. Hopper, “Developments in Compiling Techniques to 31 December 1953” (GHP, 6–1).
57. Ibid.
58. Ibid.
59. Ibid.
60. Ibid.
61. Hopper to Nora Moser, 10 February 1954 (HOL, 94–13).
NOTES TO CHAPTER 9
1. Richard Thomas DeLamarter, Big Blue: IBM’s Use and Abuse of Power (Dodd, Mead, 1986), 36.
2. See Delamarter, Big Blue; Franklin M. Fisher, James W. McKie, and Richard B. Mancke, IBM and the U.S. Data Processing Industry: An Economic History (Praeger, 1983); Charles Bashe et al., IBM’s Early Computers (MIT Press, 1986); Cortada, The Computer in the United States; Emerson W. Pugh, Building IBM: Shaping an Industry and Its Technology (MIT Press, 1995).
3. DeLamarter, Big Blue, 34. DeLamarter, an economist by training, worked for the antitrust division of the U.S. Department of Justice from 1974 to 1982. In the book’s introduction he openly admits his frustration with the government’s decision to dismiss the case against IBM. Also note that in reality the sales of the 701/702 were modest.
4. See Fisher, McKie, and Mancke, IBM and the U.S. Data Processing Industry.
5. Campbell-Kelly and Aspray, Computer, 122–123.
6. Watson, Father, Son & Co., 228.
7. UNIVAC Conference, 17 May 1990 (OHC-CB, OH-200), 116.
8. Cortada, The Computer in the United States, 92.
9. Ibid., 13.
10. Ken Garrison, interview by Robina Mapstone, 28 June 1973 (COH-SI), 7.
11. Fisher, McKie, and Mancke, IBM and the U. S. Data Processing Industry, 44–45.
12. UNIVAC Conference, 17 May 1990 (OHC-CB, OH-200), 9–11.
13. Ibid., 9.
14. Ibid., 42–43.
15. Ibid., 90.
16. Ibid., 81.
17. On the connection between labor scarcity and technology, see Cowan, A Social History of American Technology; Hopper, “Developments in Compiling Techniques to 31 December 1953” (GHP, 6–1).
18. Grace Hopper, Reflections on the History of Computer Programming, audio tape of lecture by G. Hopper presented at U.S. Military Academy, West Point, 1971, transcribed by Kurt Beyer (GHP).
19. During the 1990s, historians of t
echnology studying the computer industry arrived at similar conclusions. See Pugh, Building IBM; Cortada, The Computer in the United States; Thomas P. Hughes, Rescuing Prometheus (Pantheon, 1998).
20. Hughes, Rescuing Prometheus, 16–17.
21. Ibid., 30–32; Pugh, Building IBM, 199–207.
22. Watson, Father, Son & Co., 232.
23. During World War II, German engineers experimented with ferrite cores (Hughes, Rescuing Prometheus, 35–36).
24. Robert R. Everett, “Whirlwind,” in A History of Computing in the Twentieth Century, ed. Metropolis et al.
25. Watson, Father, Son & Co., 231. Emerson Pugh’s research suggests that Watson Jr.’s assessment was correct. See Pugh, Building IBM, 207–209.
26. Ibid., 208.
27. Ibid., 208–209; Hughes, Rescuing Prometheus, 49.
28. Watson, Father, Son & Co., 243.
29. Hughes, Rescuing Prometheus, 51.
30. IBM’s commercial success with computers incorporating Whirlwind technology led almost inevitably to litigation concerning patent rights. In the end, IBM paid MIT a lump-sum licensing fee of $13 million. Even though this constituted a substantial amount of money in the late 1950s, it represented a fraction of the value of magnetic core memory to IBM and the computer industry in the next 20 years (Hughes, Rescuing Prometheus, 38).
31. Cuthbert C. Hurd, “Computer Developments at IBM,” in Metropolis, A History of Computing, 411–414.
32. Watson, Father, Son & Co., 243.
33. Pugh, Building IBM, 209–210.
34. Hughes, Rescuing Prometheus, 55–57.
NOTES TO CHAPTER 10
1. Donald Knuth and Luis Pardo, “The Early Development of Programming Languages,” in A History of Computing in the Twentieth Century, ed. Metropolis et al. (Academic, 1980), 237.
2. Ibid., 241.
3. John Backus, “Programming in America in the 1950s—Some Personal Impressions,” in A History of Computing in the Twentieth Century, ed. Metropolis et al., 128.
4. Grace Hopper, “Keynote Speech,” Symposium on Advanced Programming Methods for Digital Computers, Washington, 28–29 June 1956. (NBS), 32, 65–66.
5. Adele Mildred Koss, interview by Kathy Kleiman, 19 May 1993 (WFGP), 25.
6. Pseudo-code, as used by Hopper and other programmers during the 1950s, is equivalent to what is referred to today as source code.
7. Grace Hopper, “The Interlude 1954–1956,” in Symposium on Advanced Programming Methods for Digital Computers (Office of Naval Research, 1956) (HOL, 94–2), 1–2.
8. Sammet, Programming Languages, 310; Hopper, Reflections.
9. John Backus, “Paper: The History of FORTRAN” 1978 (HPL), 26–27.
10. Ibid., 26.
11. Ibid.
12. Knuth and Pardo, “The Early Development of Programming Languages,” 241.
13. Ibid., 30.
14. Ibid., 241.
15. Backus had discovered that more than 50 percent of compiler computer time was spent testing and debugging.
16. Campbell-Kelly and Aspray, Computer, 190.
17. Grace Hopper, interview, 1 October 1982 (WFGP), 15.
18. Mary Hawes, “Automatic Routines for Commercial Installations” (NBS, 94–23)
19. Ibid.
20. Hopper, Reflections.
21. Ibid.
22. Ibid. Hopper’s quote serves more to highlight her sense of the dramatic rather than to represent management’s position.
23. The development of FLOW-MATIC pseudo-code appears to be one of the first instances of the intersection between programming and linguistic theory. Hopper and her team had to define and construct a standardized data-processing language from scratch.
24. Hopper, interview, 1 October 1982 (WFGP), 16.
NOTES TO CHAPTER 11
1. Grace Hopper, “Glossary of Computer Terminology: Memo to ACM Members,” 10 February 1954 (EBP, 50–19)
2. John Markoff, “Rear Adm. Grace M. Hopper Dies; Innovator in Computers Was 85,” New York Times, 3 January 1992; Richard Pearson, “Adm. Hopper Dies; Pioneer in Computers,” Washington Post, 4 January 1992.
3. Campbell-Kelly and Aspray, Computer, 191–192;Jean Sammet, “Brief Summary of the Early History of COBOL,” Annals of the History of Computing 7, no. 4 (October 1985): 288–301; Jack Strong, “The Tale of the Near Demise of COBOL at Birth,” Annals of the History of Computing 7, no. 4 (October 1985): 327.
4. “Common Business Languages for ADP: A Progress Report,” John Diebold and Associates Newsletter 4, no. 10 (1959): 1–3 (GHP, 5–12); Charles Phillips, “Report from Committee on Data Systems Languages,” 1 September 1959 (HOL, 94–2).
5. Hopper’s Navy service record and obituary verify Phillips’s assertion that she was associated with the University of Pennsylvania during 1959. Hopper’s position as “Visiting Lecturer to Adjunct Professor, Moore School of Electrical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania,” was held for one year. During that time, Hopper remained the director of UNIVAC’s automatic programming division. See Elizabeth Dickason, “Remembering Grace Murray Hopper: A Legend in Her Own Time,” CHIPS 7, no. 2 (April 1992): 4-8; Charles Phillips, “Reminiscences (Plus a Few Facts),” Annals of the History of Computing 7, no. 4 (October 1985): 304-308; Phillips, “Report from the Committee on Data Systems Languages,” 1 September 1959 (HOL, 94-2).
6. Contrary to Phillips’s and Hopper’s recollection of events, Jean Sammet, a programmer who represented Sylvania on the CODASYL short-range committee, has written that Mary Hawes of the Burroughs Corporation requested the 8 April 1959 meeting. See Jean Sammet, “Brief Summary of the Early History of COBOL,” Annals of the History of Computing 7, no. 4 (October 1985): 288–301.
7. Grace Hopper, interview, 1 October 1982 (WFGP), 18.
8. Hopper, Reflections.
9. Mary Hawes and Benjamin Cheydleur, “Suggestions for Consideration at the Washington CBL Conference,” 22 May 1959 (HOL, 94–2).
10. Ibid., 306; Hopper, Reflections.
11. Phillips, “Reminiscences (Plus a Few Facts),” 306.
12. Ibid.; Phillips, “Report from Committee on Data Systems Languages,” 1 September 1959 (HOL, 94–2).
13. Phillips, “Reminiscences (Plus a Few Facts),” 305.
14. Hopper, Reflections; “Common Business Languages for ADP: A Progress Report” (GHP, 5–12), 1–3.
15. Phillips, “Report from Committee on Data Systems Languages”; Phillips to Mr. Benjamin Cheydleur, 18 May 1959 (HOL, 94–2).
16. Agenda for CODASYL meeting, 28–29 May 1959 (HOL, 94–2).
17. Ibid.
18. Hopper, interview, 1 October 1982 (WFGP), 19.
19. Francis Holberton, handwritten notes from 28–29 May 1959 (HOL, 94–2).
20. Ibid.
21. E. J. Albertson, “Current Developments in Common Language Programming for Business Data Systems” (paper presented at the Computer Applications Symposium, Chicago, Illinois, 28 October 1959) (GHP, 5–12), 3–6. Hopper supported words over symbols for business languages.
22. At the time, the efficiency of machine language was difficult to quantify. See Jean Sammet, “The Early History of COBOL,” in History of Programming Languages, ed. Wexelblat; Charles A. Phillips, “Report from Committee on Data Systems Languages,” Oral presentation to Association for Computing Machinery, Boston, September 1, 1959.
23. Francis Holberton, handwritten notes (HOL, 94–2).
24. “Results on Questionnaire on Programming Languages” (HOL, 94–2); Albertson, “Current Developments” (GHP, 5–12).
25. Jean Sammet, “Report #1: Task Group on Statement Language,” 29 June 1959 (HOL, 94–2).
26. Alfred Asch, “Minutes of Committee Meeting on Data Systems Languages Held at Bureau of Standards, June 23–24 1959” (HOL, 94–2); Nora Taylor to Dr. Larry Polachek, 24 July 1959 (HOL, 94–2)
27. Grace Hopper, Sperry Rand Statement on Common Data Processing Language, 28 July 1959 (HOL, 94–2)
28. Hopper, interview, 1 October 1982
(WFGP), 20–22.
29. Programmers of the von Neumann-type stored program computer got used to treating operations and data equally in memory. Returning to a method used at the Harvard Computation Laboratory, Hopper’s FLOW-MATIC differentiated between the two types of information in order to make debugging easier.
30. Jean Sammet, “Answers to Written Questions from the ACM History of Programming Languages Conference,” 1 February 1979 (HPL, 19–3), 16.
31. His programmers were writing an AIMACO compiler for the IBM 705, which allowed AIMACO source code to run on either the UNIVAC 1105 or the IBM 705; Sammet, Programming Languages, 324.
32. The Justice Department cited “product pre-announcement” as an abuse of market power in its 1952 lawsuit against IBM.
33. Sammet, Programming Languages, 325.
34. CSC, one of the first “software” companies, has become one of the largest companies in the world.
35. Jack Strong, “The Tale of the Near Demise of COBOL at Birth,” Annals of the History of Computing 7, no. 4 (October 1985): 327.