FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslator) was developed by IBM in the late 1950s. John Backus (1924–2007) was the head of the team that developed FORTRAN. Designed for scientific work containing mathematical formulas, FORTRAN allowed programmers to use algebraic expressions rather than cryptic assembly code. The FORTRAN compiler translated the algebraic expressions into machine-level code. By the late 1960s, FORTRAN was available on almost every computer, especially IBM machines, and utilized by many users.