> When I started out in the compiler business in the 80s many commercial compilers were originally written by one person. A very good person who dedicated himself (I have never heard of a woman doing this)
Not to mention Betty Snyder Holberton, Adele Mildred "Millie" Coss, and I think Jean Sammet. You can probably add Elizabeth Rather to the list; although she was the head of a company at the time, I'm sure there are commercial compilers from the company that she wrote singlehandedly. She also has the distinction of having done this during the 1980s, when the bar for a compiler was a lot higher.
I too found that side-note a bit unnecessary. "Himself" works just fine as a gender-neutral pronoun.
Did any of Grace Hopper's work get released commercially? She was an admiral in the Navy, after all.
Is that really the point, though? kragen's sibling post makes a better case.