The simple answer is never. Grace Hopper was a computerscientist (not a doctor) who popularised the concept ofmachine-independent English-like programming languages -- a conceptthat was initially ignored on the grounds that "computers did notspeak English". In 1954, Hopper's department at Eckert-MauchlyComputer Corporation released some of the first compiler-basedprogramming languages, including MATH-MATIC and FLOW-MATIC. It wasthese achievements that led to the development of COBOL in 1959 bythe Conference on Data Systems Languages (CODASYL) consortium.Hopper served as a technical consultant to the committee, and manyof her former employees served on the short-term committee thatdefined the new language COBOL. Hopper became known as "the(grand)mother of COBOL" in recognition of her work, without whichCOBOL might not have been developed at all.