
John W. Backus - inventor of FORTRAN, BNF (12/03/24  - 03/17/07) - bootload
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Backus
======
bootload
It was reported in the press today [0] that John Backus passes away last week.
M77 was one of the first languages I had a crack at calculating latitudes &
longitudes for some mapping project. BNF & it's extended form , EBNF is a
foundation in language design still used today.

Reference

[0] New York Times, Online, STEVE LOHR, 'John W. Backus, 82, Fortran
Developer, Dies':

[http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/20/business/20backus.html?_r=1&hp;&oref;=slogin](http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/20/business/20backus.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin)

[Accessed 20 March, 2007]

[1] BNF, John Backus & Peter Naur, 'Backus Naur Form':

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_Backus-Naur_form>

[Accessed 20 March, 2007]

[2] EBNF, Wirth 'extended Backus Naur Form':

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_Backus-Naur_form>

[Accessed 20 March, 2007]

------
python_kiss
dupe: <http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=5253>

~~~
bootload
Yeah wasn't there as I was writing the post up & checking the links. But I
don't consider this a "dupe". It would be if it pointed to the same article
(NYT), but I considered the NYT login to kick in, thus making the link
worthless in a few days. Hence the reference to the Wikipedia article.

Added links should a) inform and b) be visible for long periods. So I
considered the WIkipedia link more _reliable_. It's something to consider, "Is
one article on the same topic" more definitive than another? Does it matter if
there is more information on one topic? Is a first report of the a 'time
dependent' piece of information the best to post?

