His last name is the N in the BNF notation (Backus-Naur form), used in the description of the syntax for most programming languages.
Using a metaphor from John Backus, assignment statements in von Neumann languages split programming into two worlds.
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FORTRAN, developed by John Backus at IBM starting in 1954, was the first major programming language to remove the obstacles presented by machine code in the creation of complex programs.