Grace Hopper was a programmer on the early computer Mark I. A programming pioneer, she helped invent the first compiler and popularized ideas leading to COBOL, precursor to our modern computer languages.
This woman, who completely escaped my radar, appeared in old computer-science textbooks long before her most distinguished awards. I found her in one such book and have remembered some of what she did. I was impressed that she added such character, innovation and beauty to the computer world.
(Someone I did find in college was that first programmer Ada Lovelace, who helped Babbage rethink computation.)
Hopper advocated programming languages that resembled english as opposed to machine code. Even now we usually let computers or compilers interpret our directions into their more efficient form, rather than doing it ourselves. She also advocated networking muliple smaller computers rather than using larger centralized computers.
Much of what I love about programming was pioneered by her—such as readable and beautiful code. I sense, as I study her life, that much of what she did was subjective in nature, such as popularizing good and important ideas. As well as advocating human language to command computers, she promoted standards leading to improvements in our present day.
She recieved many notable awards for her significant contributions to national defence and computing. I also get the feeling that she could have been liked by some but not by others. She may have been discriminated against for being a woman. If this is so, she is a hero for making a difference against any resistance.