Comments on: The Queen of Code https://gregladen.com/blog/2015/02/07/the-queen-of-code/ Fri, 27 Feb 2015 04:30:28 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.6 By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2015/02/07/the-queen-of-code/#comment-475475 Fri, 27 Feb 2015 04:30:28 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=20878#comment-475475 In reply to Nat Weems.

Great story!

]]> By: Nat Weems https://gregladen.com/blog/2015/02/07/the-queen-of-code/#comment-475474 Fri, 27 Feb 2015 03:58:41 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=20878#comment-475474 I worked for the Texas Department of Human Services (now HHSC) back in the ’80s. Our CIO, Dave England, was Naval Reserve and spent his active duty stints in her DC office. In 1985 Dave invited Adm. Hopper to be the keynote speaker at an APWA/ISM gathering here in Austin. I was too busy to attend the conference but wangled time to see her speak. Dave saw me walk in, waved me over and introduced us. He then excused himself. I had an uninterrupted half hour chat with Adm. Hopper; I still have the fistful of nanoseconds. Grace was a pocket rocket. Tiny, perfectly uniformed and an astounding motormouth. I think Dave needed a break and I was the beneficiary. I managed to get out ‘I am thrilled to meet you…’ and little else. Her talk that day was on how organizations fail to adequately place a value on their data, and therefore inadequately protect it. I got the rehearsal and about 5 other threads in my 30 minutes.It was great fun and a wonderful memory.

]]> By: Emmanuel Faleye https://gregladen.com/blog/2015/02/07/the-queen-of-code/#comment-475473 Sat, 14 Feb 2015 09:00:53 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=20878#comment-475473 I never heard about her before, and yet she was such a great woman, amongst many others. Her name was hindered from much publicity probably by the degree of the domination of patriarchy in her time. I shall spread the word: what a man can do a woman can do too!

]]> By: Mpfuxelelo Makhubele https://gregladen.com/blog/2015/02/07/the-queen-of-code/#comment-475472 Fri, 13 Feb 2015 19:38:58 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=20878#comment-475472 I had no idea who Grace Hopper was and I agree with Greg Laden, I should. More people (male and female alike) should know about the people who started what we now do because we have to and what we do in the comfort of our homes. We should know about them to recognize the passion/drive that lead them to their discoveries and inventions. We should be the “resources” Grace Hopper said we are. We should recommend this blog to others and hope their lives are changed just as mine was after reading about and watching the film about her – Grace Hopper.

]]> By: toby52 https://gregladen.com/blog/2015/02/07/the-queen-of-code/#comment-475471 Tue, 10 Feb 2015 19:49:30 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=20878#comment-475471 Eavan Boland’s ode to Grace Hopper is here:

http://maryrockcastle.tripod.com/pdf/5/Bolandpoem.pdf

]]> By: toby52 https://gregladen.com/blog/2015/02/07/the-queen-of-code/#comment-475470 Tue, 10 Feb 2015 19:43:52 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=20878#comment-475470 Grace Hopper worked as a consultant with Digital Equipment Corporation (now part of HP) in the 1980s, while I was a lowly engineer. She was a legend then, and I am glad to see she still is.

]]> By: John Mashey https://gregladen.com/blog/2015/02/07/the-queen-of-code/#comment-475469 Mon, 09 Feb 2015 05:43:32 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=20878#comment-475469 Eek,.typo.
What, exactly does that mean, and is it plausible?:
(Grace’s accomplishments do NOT need unprovenanced numbers, look her up at Computer History Museum.)

]]> By: Christopher Winter https://gregladen.com/blog/2015/02/07/the-queen-of-code/#comment-475468 Mon, 09 Feb 2015 02:44:52 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=20878#comment-475468 I know Grace Hopper by her origination of the term “computer bug” and by her dictum: “It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.” I’ve quoted it on a number of occasions.

It’s good to see more information about her.

]]> By: j a higginbotham https://gregladen.com/blog/2015/02/07/the-queen-of-code/#comment-475467 Sun, 08 Feb 2015 07:53:12 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=20878#comment-475467 hopper and mark 1
http://futureforce.navylive.dodlive.mil/files/2014/06/GraceHopper-Group.jpg

]]> By: Brainstorms https://gregladen.com/blog/2015/02/07/the-queen-of-code/#comment-475466 Sat, 07 Feb 2015 21:34:35 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=20878#comment-475466 This quote from Wikipedia, for me, shows the breadth of Hamilton’s expertise and the significant impact(s) she had on the field:

“[S]he produced innovations in the fields of system design and software development, enterprise and process modelling, development paradigm, formal systems modelling languages, system-oriented objects for systems modelling and development, automated life-cycle environments, methods for maximizing software reliability and reuse, domain analysis, correctness by built-in language properties, open-architecture techniques for robust systems, full life-cycle automation, quality assurance, seamless integration, error detection and recovery techniques, man/machine interface systems, operating systems, end-to-end testing techniques, and life-cycle management techniques.”

For any software engineer to master even a quarter of these is doing well; to innovate in all of them is “Wow!” This is all that “good code engineering stuff” you’re using today (or should be using) to make *quality* software. If you’re using an OS or app that “just works”, she’s one to thank for laying the foundations of code that’s correct & robust.

(Not to draw away Grace Hopper’s due attention, but Margaret Hamilton deserves to be also listed among the icons of the software world, too.)

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