Programming languages

Abstract

This paper discusses both the history and future of programming languages (= higher level languages). Some of the difficulties in writing such a history are indicated. A key part of the paper is a tree showing the chronological development of languages and their interrelationships, Reasons for the proliferation of languages are given. The major languages are listed with the reasons for their importance. A section on chronology indicates the happenings of the significant previous time periods and the major topics of 1972. Key concepts other than specific languages are discussed.

The History of Computer Language Selection

“…As early as 1960 there were 73 languages in existence (Sammet, 1972). By 1967 there were 117, and by 1971 there were 164 (Sammet, 1972).…”

“…As early as 1960 there were 73 languages in existence (Sammet, 1972). By 1967 there were 117, and by 1971 there were 164 (Sammet, 1972). One response to the difficulty of determining language significance was taken by the ACM Special Interest Group on Programming Languages (SIGPLAN).…”

Choosing Appropriate Programming Language to Implement Software for Real-Time Resource- Constrained Embedded Systems

“…Sources for this section include (Sammet, 1969;Booch, 1991;Grogono, 1999;Lambert & Osborne, 2000;Mitchell, 2003;Calgary, 2005;Davidgould, 2008;Network Dictionary, 2008).…”

“…In addition to programming paradigm, the purpose of use is an important characteristic of a language: it is unlikely to see one language fitting all needs for all purposes (Sammet, 1969). Programming languages can be divided, according to their purpose, into general-purpose languages, system programming languages, scripting languages, domain-specific languages, and concurrent / distributed languages (or a combination of these).…”

Modeling the use of Programming Languages: a very Simple Approach

“…For example, according to Sammet J. [2], [3] over 200 programming languages were developed between 1952 and 1972, but she considered only about 13 of them to be significant. Some of them appeared more than 50 years ago and continue in use today.…”