The mother of Compilers

 

We owe a lot of we have today to Hopper, she didn’t took into account usual conventions, that’s probably why she was so ahead of her time, not taking as a given your “role” as a woman in those time was difficult, really difficult, it was an all the way up against almost all the people in you life. 

She even had to learn all about computers on the fly, although she had a mathematics background it is still difficult to learn that much specially of society is not on your side, but it seemed she found a home in the army, where her abilities were not underestimated and she was considered a valuable asset to the forces. 

She was immersed deep in her work; I would say her work was her life and vice versa, even thinking wide and proposing that a computer should be easier to use, and she end up writing a compiler, breaking though most of the techniques that are still in use today, but making the first time was not easy at all, it should have taken an enormous amount of creativity, that’s why I said that she didn’t took into account the conventions, it's like there was in another plane of thinking and she could tap into it to solve problems that we didn’t have before, she was great at spearheading change and always to a better place, and she was tireless, as I said her work was her life and she did her work splendidly until the moment she died, not only for herself but also transmitting the knowledge to younger generations of people, making great contributions to the life of thousands directly and probably millions indirectly this considering that she did all that in a time were woman were underestimated is a great testament of how hard she fought and how talented she was.

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