John Backus

John Backus – Life, Career, and Famous Quotes

: Discover the life, breakthroughs, and enduring ideas of John Backus — the creator of FORTRAN, inventor of Backus-Naur Form (BNF), and pioneer in function-level programming.

Introduction

John Warner Backus (December 3, 1924 – March 17, 2007) was an American computer scientist and mathematician whose innovations laid foundational stones for modern programming languages. He led the development of FORTRAN, the first widely used high-level programming language, and devised Backus-Naur Form (BNF), a notation that became standard for defining the syntax of programming languages. Later in his career, he challenged prevailing programming paradigms via his work on function-level programming and critiques of the von Neumann style.

Backus’s contributions remain deeply embedded in software engineering, compiler theory, programming language design, and theoretical computer science. This article traces his journey, scientific achievements, philosophy, and legacy—with quotes that reflect his mindset.

Early Life and Education

John Backus was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on December 3, 1924, though he grew up in Wilmington, Delaware.

He attended The Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, but by many accounts was not an especially disciplined student.

During World War II, Backus was conscripted into the U.S. Army, eventually rising to the rank of corporal and serving in anti-aircraft defense.

A dramatic event occurred while he was in medical training: a tumor in his skull was discovered and surgically removed, with a metal plate implanted. Later, he designed and replaced that plate himself.

Returning to New York, he trained as a radio technician, and gradually gravitated toward mathematics. B.A. in Mathematics from Columbia University in 1949 and his M.A. in Mathematics in 1950.

In 1950, Backus joined IBM, embarking on a career that would transform computing.

Career and Achievements

Speedcoding & Early Work

Upon joining IBM, Backus worked on the Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator (SSEC), one of IBM’s early calculating machines. Speedcoding in 1953, the first high-level (interpreted) system for the IBM 701, easing the process of scientific computing despite its performance cost.

FORTRAN and High-Level Programming

Recognizing the need for more practical, human-friendly programming, Backus formed and led a team at IBM to design FORTRAN (Formula Translator). This project began in 1954 and culminated in a working compiler for the IBM 704 by roughly 1957.

FORTRAN is widely regarded as the first high-level programming language to gain broad adoption, particularly in scientific and engineering contexts. It abstracted away much of the complexity of machine instructions, opening up computing to more domain experts.

Because of FORTRAN’s success and influence, Backus earned key accolades:

• IBM Fellow (1963)

• W. W. McDowell Award from IEEE (1967)

• National Medal of Science (1975)

• ACM Turing Award (1977) for his lasting impact on high-level programming and formal language specification.

BNF & Syntax Specification

While contributing to the development of ALGOL (especially ALGOL 58 and ALGOL 60), Backus introduced a grammar description technique known as Backus-Naur Form (BNF). BNF became a standard notation for defining the syntactic structure of programming languages, and is foundational in compiler theory and language design.

BNF enabled precise, concise definitions of context-free grammars, facilitating automated parsing, compiler generation, and formal reasoning about languages.

Function-Level Programming & Later Work

In the latter portion of his career, Backus turned critical attention to mainstream programming paradigms—especially the dominance of von Neumann-style, imperative programming. He proposed a function-level paradigm, notably in his Turing Award lecture, “Can Programming Be Liberated from the von Neumann Style?” (published in 1978).

He developed FP, a language embodying the function-level style. Though FP had limited adoption, it stimulated thought in functional programming, point-free style, and algebraic program design.

Subsequently, he worked on FL (Function Level), a successor to FP, mostly as internal IBM research.

Backus retired from IBM in 1991, though he remained intellectually active afterward.

Personality, Philosophy & Approach

Backus was known for his wit, modesty, and sometimes self-deprecating remarks. One of his most oft-quoted lines:

“Much of my work has come from being lazy. I didn’t like writing programs, … I started work on a programming system to make it easier to write programs.”

He believed in embracing failure as part of the creative process:

“You need the willingness to fail all the time. You have to generate many ideas … and keep doing that … until you find one that does work.”

He was also critical of rote education:

“They don’t like thinking in medical school. They memorize — that’s all they want you to do. You must not think.”

Beyond such quotes, Backus’s philosophy emphasized that programming languages should not merely mirror hardware constraints, but empower reasoning, transformation, and higher-level abstraction.

Legacy and Influence

John Backus’s legacy is deep and multifaceted:

• Foundation of Modern Programming: FORTRAN is still in use today (especially in scientific and engineering computing), and many principles of modern languages can trace roots to his work.

• Language Theory & Compiler Design: BNF remains a standard tool in defining language grammars and in designing compilers, interpreters, and domain-specific languages.

• Paradigmatic Critique and Innovation: His challenge to the von Neumann style, and exploration of function-level programming, invited computer scientists to reexamine how we design programs and reason about them.

• Inspirational for Language Designers: Many later innovations in functional programming, category theory in programming, compositional semantics, and functional languages owe conceptual debts to ideas Backus pursued.

• Honors and Memorials: beyond his awards, Backus’s name lives on—e.g. asteroid 6830 Johnbackus was named in his honor.

Lessons from John Backus’s Journey

1. Creativity often comes from frustration
   His famous “laziness” quote underscores that tools often arise from genuine pain points—not from abstract ideals.

2. Don’t be afraid to challenge dominant paradigms
   Backus questioned mainstream programming orthodoxy and proposed alternatives—even when acceptance was limited.

3. Formalism empowers clarity
   His insistence on formal language definitions (BNF) showed that precision aids both design and understanding.

4. Failure is part of the process
   Embracing trial, error, and multiple attempts is foundational to innovation.

5. Bridging theory and practice matters
   Backus succeeded both in building practical tools (FORTRAN) and in advancing theoretical frameworks (grammars, function-level programming).

Selected Quotes

• “Much of my work has come from being lazy. I didn’t like writing programs … I started work on a programming system to make it easier to write programs.”

• “You need the willingness to fail all the time … until you find one that does work.”

• “They don’t like thinking in medical school. They memorize — that’s all they want you to do. You must not think.”

Conclusion

John Warner Backus was a visionary whose work shaped how we program, how we describe languages, and how we think about software abstraction. From his early frustrations with manual coding to the creation of FORTRAN and BNF, to his later critiques of programming paradigms, he remained a force for elevating the intellectual rigor of computing.

His legacy lives on in every compiler, every language specification, and every developer who works at a level beyond machine code. His life teaches us that necessity begets invention, that humility can accompany rigor, and that performance is only one dimension of programming’s potential.