Computer science/Catalogs/Breakthroughs

This is a list of people who have made major conceptual breakthroughs in computer science or the history of computing, possibly deserving articles of their own. This should not include people who invented new computers, unless they devised an innovation in the computer which was adopted by everyone later because it was such a good idea (and you can identify what that innovation was, and document it). Let's keep this for the really great ones for now. Pat Palmer 16:06, 12 May 2007 (CDT)

• Backus, John - invention of FORTRAN
• Hopper, Grace - invention of the compiler, and COBOL
• Shannon, Claude - association of boolean algebra with digital design
• Turing, Alan - theory of computability
• Zuse, Konrad - likely invented the first viable electronic computer; likely the first designer to propose pipelining in processors