Jørn Jensen (1925 – 2007) was one of the earliest

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

computer programmers. Examined as a

mechanical engineer Mechanical may refer to: Machine * Machine (mechanical), a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement * Mechanical calculator, a device used to perform the basic operations of ...

, he had worked with electromechanical construction. In 1958, he was employed at the Danish

Regnecentralen Regnecentralen (RC) was the first Danish computer company, founded on October 12, 1955. Through the 1950s and 1960s, they designed a series of computers, originally for their own use, and later to be sold commercially. Descendants of these syste ...

(RC), and very soon exhibited an extraordinary programming skill. He developed the main parts of the base programs to the ''Dansk Aritmetisk Sekvens Kalkulator'' (

DASK The DASK was the first computer in Denmark. It was commissioned in 1955, designed and constructed by Regnecentralen, and began operation in September 1957. DASK is an acronym for Dansk Aritmetisk Sekvens Kalkulator or ''Danish Arithmetic Sequence ...

, ''Danish Arithmetic Sequence Calculator''), the first Danish computer. Among other programs, he designed a set of monitor programs to supervise the program running schedule on DASK. In tight collaboration with

Peter Naur Peter Naur (25 October 1928 – 3 January 2016) was a Danish computer science pioneer and Turing award winner. He is best remembered as a contributor, with John Backus, to the Backus–Naur form (BNF) notation used in describing the syntax for m ...

and others, he developed reliable, well documented

compiler In computing, a compiler is a computer program that translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs tha ...

s for the ALGOL 60 programming language. Mentions Naur's work with Jensen on GIER ALGOL. In this context, he invented Jensen's Device, an ingenious exploitation of the name parameters to compute numerical series without using procedure parameters, as is needed in all programming languages, except ALGOL 60 and Simula 67. After some 20 years at Regnecentralen, he continued his career in

systems programming Systems programming, or system programming, is the activity of programming computer system software. The primary distinguishing characteristic of systems programming when compared to application programming is that application programming aims to pr ...

, and other types, at the

Brown, Boveri & Cie Brown, Boveri & Cie. (Brown, Boveri & Company; BBC) was a Swiss group of electrical engineering companies. It was founded in Zürich, in 1891 by Charles Eugene Lancelot Brown and Walter Boveri who worked at the Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon. In 1 ...

electrical engineering company.

References

Danish computer programmers 1925 births 2007 deaths {{Europe-compu-bio-stub