Hacking and Open Source Culture

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Hacking and Open Source Culture
The advancement in technology has come a long way, and some of the famous thinkers are still remembered for their contributions. This was the case for Grace Hopper who was a physician and mathematician at a time when men still dominated the careers. A creative idea is seen as the foundation of a creative process as the thinkers keep on looking for solutions to problems. Similarly, Hopper is seen as one of the famous thinkers who made an important contribution to computer science as will be discussed in this work.
Hopper received her education from Yale University and Vassar College where she studied mathematics and later obtained a master’s degree in the same subject. She later continued with her education at Yale where she obtained a Ph.D. in mathematics and became the first woman ever to reach the level of education in the subject. She was also teaching at her former College at the time she was continuing with her education at Yale University (Auel 12). The level of education attained offered her several job opportunities including an associate professor at her previous College. Just as expected from her for coming from a military background, Grace joined the US Naval Reserve during the Second World War where she was commissioned as a lieutenant.
The position given to her granted her the opportunity to be listed to join the research team at Harvard University. She reported at Harvard as the Bureau of Ordnance Computation Project. The opportunity gave her a chance to learn how to program Mark I computer (Meyr 7). Mark I was an electromechanical computer which was used for war during the end of Second World War. The computer was used for general purposes including communication which gave an advantage against the enemies. Information was critical during the time as most means of communication were slow as opposed to computing technology which was evolving.
Later, Hopper worked with Mark II and Mark III computers. At the time when she was working with Mark II, she found a moth that shorted the computer and they debug it and that is where the term ‘’computer bug’’ originated. During her career, she led a team that invented the first compilers which were used for developing the computer language. A compiler is a devise that helps in converting complex languages which are written by human beings into a simple language that the computer can understand. The concepts of computer language are based on the idea of coding. The codes are written using two values and that is zero and one which are arranged in sequence for the computer to interpret, understand, and process. She even continued with the journey of programming after returning to the Navy for active duty.
The idea of compilers improved and led to the development of (Common Business-Oriented Language) COBOL which is one of the known computer languages known in the 20th century. Hopper believed that programming language was easy to understand just as the English language. This made her develop compilers which transform the source language from a complex computer language which can be written by people to a low-level language which the computer can understand and process (Strawn, George and Candace 63). The view was not common among people as nobody could think that a computer can process a language.
The idea be...