Grace Hopper

Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper (December 9 1906 – January 1 1992) was an American computer scientist and United States Navy officer. A pioneer in the field, she was one of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I calculator, and she developed the first compiler for a computer programming language. Because of the breadth of her accomplishments and her naval rank, she is sometimes referred to as "Amazing Grace".
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<person> US Navy Rear Admiral Grace Brewster Hopper (1906-12-09 to 1992-01-01), ne Grace Brewster Murray.
Hopper is believed to have concieved the concept of the compiler with the A-0 in 1952. She also developed the first commercial high-level language, which eventually evolved into COBOL. She worked on the Mark I computer with Howard Aiken and with BINAC in 1949.
She is credited with having coined the term "debug", and the adage "it is always easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission" (with various wordings), which has been the guiding principle in sysadmin decisions ever since.
See also the entries debug and bug.
Hopper is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. In 1994, the US Navy named a new ship, the guided-missile destroyer USS Hopper, after her.
(1999-06-29)