The invention of FORTRAN programming by John Backus

In 1953 John W. Backus (1924-2007) IBM scientist proposed the advanced programming language. He began work on a simple programming language that would in 1954 become the Mathematical Formula Translating System (FORTRAN). It was announced by IBM in 1957.

John W. Backus

FORTRAN has been the main language for scientific computing since the origin of computing. The first FORTRAN compiler was a milestone in the history of computing; at that time computers had very small memories, they were slow and had very primitive operating system.

FORTRAN quickly caught on among scientists and engineers; by 1958, half the machine instructions at sixty IBM installations were produced through FORTAN, rather than machine code.

In 1958 FORTRAN II (followed the same year by FORTRAN III) was a significant improvement; it added the capability for separate compilation of programme modules. Further development yielded FORTRAN, then FORTRAN-90, FORTRAN-95 and FORTRAN-2000.
The invention of FORTRAN programming by John Backus

Invention history of COBOL programming language

COBOL is one of the oldest programming languages, primarily designed by coding pioneer Grace Hopper who is commonly referred to as “the mother of the COBOL language.” This early programming language was invented in 1959.

It was only in August 1968 that a standard version of the language was approved by the American National Standards Institute. This version known as ANSI-68 COBOL or COBOL-68 is the first official standard of COBOL.

COBOL is short for common Business-Oriented Language. It allows coders to program computers using English words rather than a complex series of numbers. COBOL also made it possible for many companies to use the same software. This saved a lot of money.

The language continues to evolve, as the OCBOL 2002 standard includes support for object-oriented programming and other modern language features.
Invention history of COBOL programming language