Computers cannot interpret human languages. They have their own language which is known as binary language. It is the language of 0’s and 1’s. So to command or program a computer to get the desired results one had to first convert the program from human language to the binary language. This was done by converting each line of the program into binary language and feed it into the memory line by line. This was how the computers in those days were programmed.
Shortly after the invention of John Von Neumann’s models, the first ever programming language to be programmed on an electronic device named Short Code was devised in the year 1949 A.D. In this language human help was needed to convert the program into binary language and feed it into the memory. This job of converting the program line by line into binary language was proving to be a tedious and time consuming work.
This is when the compiler was invented. The first compiler was named A-0 by its inventor, Mr. Grace Hopper in the year 1951 A.D. A compiler is a program which automatically converts the human language into the machine understandable language that is the binary language. The invention of the compiler made programming simple and very efficient. Now a lot of time was saved as the machine could itself translate human language into the machine readable language and the programmer was saved from the tedious job of interpreting.
In the year 1957 A.D. the first major programming language which appeared due to the inventions and work of earlier scientists was FORTRAN-FORmula TRANslating. This programming language was invented by International Business Machines (IBM). They invented FORTRAN for computing science related queries. The language was a breakthrough in programming. It was a big step towards the start of making high end languages. Today FORTRAN is nothing compared to modern languages because it contained limited commands such as DO, GOTO and IF statements, but these commands were innovative in those days.