Proper noun (person)
    
  
    John Warner Backus  
          
      
          
      
      
   
  
                  
                            
              
  
                  
                            
              
  
    
        (December 3, 1924 – March 17, 2007) American computer scientist known for leading the team who invented FORTRAN, the first widely used high-level programming language        
          
      
          
      
      
    
  
      John Warner Backus was famous in computer circles for inventing FORTRAN, as well as his formal language definition called the Backus-Naur form (BNF).