Programming Languages

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    Programming Languages

  • Plankalkul

    Plankalkul was created by Konrad Zuse. It was meant to be an engineering-focused language. It was also the first high-level non-von Neumann programming language to be designed for a computer. The name is German for "Plan Calculus."
  • Fortran

    Fortran was developed by IBM after receiving a request for a better alternative to assembly language for the 704 mainframe computer by John Backus. It was meant to be used mainly for numeric and scientific purposes. The name is a shortened version of "FORmulating TRANslating system."
  • MATH-MATIC

    This was made by Charlez Katz and his development group. MATH-MATIC is also known as the AT-3 compiler. It was used to program UNIVAC I & II, and was considered an improved version of Fortran.
  • Lisp

    Lisp was invented by John McCarthy. Lisp was created to allow computer to process symbolic data in lists. The name is short for LISt Processing.
  • RPG

    IBM developed this language to use for punched card machines in business applications. RPG stands for Report Program Generator.
  • COBOL

    COBOL was designed by Grace Hopper after the idea of the language was drawn up by researchers from private industry, universities and government. It is considered one of the oldest programming languages. It was created primarily for use with business and finance. The acronym stands for COmmon Business Oriented Language.
  • BASIC

    BASIC was made by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz. They created it so that people (mainly college students) could use computers for classes outside science and math. It stands for Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code.
  • LOGO

    LOGO was designed by Daniel Bobrow, Wally Feurzeig, Seymour Papert and Cynthia Solomon. It was made to be an educational language that was graphically oriented. It got its name from the Greek word "logos," which means "word." It was called this because most other programming languages were numerically based,
  • B

    B was created by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie at Bell Labs with the purpose of performing simple, non-numeric applications, which normally required unnecessarily complicated strings of logic sequences. B is thought to named after BCPL or Bon, other programming languages.
  • PASCAL

    PASCAL was made by Niklaus Wirth. He wanted to make a language that would teach and encourage the programmer to use structured programming and data structuring. It was named after Blaise Pascal, who was a French mathematician and philosopher.
  • C

    C was created by Dennis Ritchie between 1969 and 1972. Its purpose was to allow high level machine programming and the programmer to control individual pieces of data. It is called "C" because it was based on "B," which Ritchie also developed.
  • ML

    Robin Milner invented this language for developing proof tactics for the LCF (Logic for Computable Functions) theorem prover. ML stands for "metalanguage."
  • SQL

    SQL was developed by Donald Chamberlin and Raymond Boyce. Its purpose was to manage data held in a relational database management system. SQL stands for Structured Query Language.
  • C++

    Bjarne Stroustrup made C++, which he originally called "C with Classes." The purpose was to create a language similar to C, with the additions of object-oriented programming and other minor features. The "++" in the name was added to represent the increment operator of the language.
  • ADA

    ADA was created by the High Order Language Working Group (HOLWG). Its primary purpose is to serve as a stable, standard code for military and commercially-based systems, especially those where a software bug can cause serious damage, such as air traffic control. The language is named after Ada Lovelace (aka Ada Byron, the first computer programmer).
  • Python

    Python was invented by Guido van Rossum. It is a high-level language that lets users to accomplish tasks using fewer lines of code. Its name is a reference to Monty Python, the comedy group (because the language is simple and "fun to use").
  • Visual Basic

    Visual Basic was created by Microsoft, who wanted a programming language for the COM programming model. Microsoft hired a company called Tripod to develop a simple user interface so programmers could easily manipulate the BASIC language graphically (this is why the words "Visual" and "Basic" are in the name).
  • Java

    Java was made by James Gosling. The purpose of the language was to allow programmers to write code on one platform without having to recompile the same code on another. It was named after the many cups of coffee the developers drank while working on the language.
  • PHP

    PHP was created by Rasmus Lerdorf. It was made mainly for use in creating web pages. PHP originally stood for "Personal Home Page." It now stands for "PHP: Hypertext Processor."
  • Delphi

    Delphi was originally created by Borlund Software. It was made to be an integrated development environment (IDE) for graphical, console, and mobile applications. Delphi was named after the Greek Oracle of Delphi.
  • Javascript

    Javascript was created by Brendan Eich. It was made to be efficiently used by amateurs, while Java was mainly written by professional programmers. It was believed to be named with the intent of making people believe it was a spin-off of Java, which had recently been released, so they would use Javascript over competing languages.