00:00Hey Alex, can you tell me what time it is?
00:12It's 6.45 a.m.
00:14Alex, will you please go on YouTube and play the video on invention of Morse code from my show?
00:20Sure, don't you be.
00:24Hey guys, isn't our friend Alex intelligent?
00:28I mean it has answers to anything and everything I ask.
00:34Did you know computers actually follow a set of instructions written by humans?
00:40These set of instructions is called computer programming language that enables computers to understand us.
00:49They are like super machines, aren't they?
00:54Let me tell you an interesting story about how this works and who was the super mind behind this super invention of computer programming.
01:04Zoom in!
01:06Making a language that both computer and humans could understand was a tough job.
01:14In the earlier days computer programs were written in lengthy instructions using binary code.
01:21binary codes are a combination of zeros and ones.
01:26Every single word was written in a combination of zero and one.
01:32This turned out to be quite time consuming and frustrating for programmers.
01:37But not for long, great Grace Hopper rescued all.
01:43Grace Hopper was an American computer scientist and United States Navy officer.
01:50Grace always had the knack of working around things.
01:54You know a funny little story of her childhood.
01:59At the age of seven, she dismantled all the alarm clocks in her house to figure out how they worked.
02:06Numbers fascinated Grace a huge deal and she went on to studying Mathematics.
02:13Apart from being intelligent, Grace was also very courageous.
02:19After completing her studies, she joined the Navy to serve her country.
02:25Upon her arrival from the Navy, she met the Mark 1 computer.
02:31It reminded Grace of the alarm clocks she dissected in her childhood.
02:36She could hardly wait to know how this thing worked on the inside.
02:45Grace dismantled the computer part by part and started understanding the way it functions.
02:52She discovered that the computer was very similar to a library.
02:59Sounds funny, doesn't it friends?
03:02All the information in the computer was stored in specific locations in a specific order.
03:10Like books on a library shelf.
03:13She called these locations call numbers and grouped them on a record.
03:19Now all she had to do was to write down a set of call numbers using English.
03:26And the computer would find them from the record.
03:30The computer worked it out by decoding the English words.
03:34It found the locations and performed the required action.
03:39This was the first time someone made the computer understand humans without using the impractical lengthy procedure.
03:49Sadly, no one really believed in Grace or her invention.
03:55They staunchly felt that a mere computer could not understand English.
04:01Her great invention was kept untouched for three whole years.
04:06But in 1952, things took a sharp turn.
04:11To her surprise, one of her seniors gave her a chance to prove her invention worthy.
04:18Grace grabbed the opportunity and presented the first ever computer program.
04:25Which was known as the A0 compiler.
04:28With Mark 1 soon transforming into new computers, Grace tasted success.
04:35She created better versions of A0.
04:39The best was B0.
04:42Which also paved way for the development of the programming language COBOL.
04:48Grace led the team that invented COBOL.
04:51Making her the mother of COBOL.
04:56COBOL was very user friendly and fast.
04:59It soon started taking over our daily lives.
05:02It could produce bills and do complicated calculations in just a matter of seconds.
05:09It has been now over 60 years since the invention of COBOL.
05:14It is still alive and kicking.
05:16In fact, let me quickly tell you something cool about it.
05:20Trivia Time!
05:22Did you know that more than 80% of business transactions today are done with the help of COBOL?
05:31Grace also invented the terms bug and debug relating to computer errors.
05:37One day, Grace's computer wasn't working properly.
05:41Curious as she was, she opened it and found a moth inside.
05:47Taping the moth into her log book, she wrote,
05:51First actual bug found.
05:56I must admit, she's got a sense of humor.
05:59Just like me.
06:02So you see friends, this is how computers came to understand our language.
06:08I'm off to research on my next topic.
06:12See you soon.
06:13This is me zooming out.
06:17Hey kids!
06:19You liked my videos, didn't you?
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06:27So you won't miss out on my latest videos.
06:30See you!
