Programming Languages

Ada Lovelace - Bernoulli numbers

Oct 1, 1842

Ada Lovelace writes instructions for calculating the Bernoulli numbers using Charles Babbage's Analytical engine. This is considered the first computer program.

Herman Hollerith - Punch Cards

Jan 1, 1890

Hollerith noticed train conductors encoding passanger information on tickets by punching holes in them. Following this example he recorded the data from the 1890 census on punch cards

Konrad Zuse - Plankalkül

Jan 1, 1943

Plankalkül for the Z3 computer was the first instance of what we might recognise as a computer programming language today. It was intended for use by engineers and simply means "Plan Calculus"

Grace Hopper - A-0

Jan 1, 1951

(Arithmetic Language version 0) was for the UNIVAC I, and was the first compiler ever developed for an electronic computer. The system converted instructions into macine code which would be re-fed into the computer.

FORTRAN

Jan 1, 1957

Developed by IBM for scientific calculations, FORTRAN is the first high level programming language. FORTRAN has been used continuously for this purpose for over half a century

LISP

Jan 1, 1958

lisp is the basis of many modern programming languages, and is thought to be the second oldest high level programming language

COBOL

Jan 1, 1959

Based on work by Grace Hopper, this was a US defence funded project in a bid to create a portable programming language, and manufacturers were pressured to provide and adopt it, which they did and it became standard

BASIC

Jan 1, 1964

Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code is a family of general purpose programming languages. The aim was to enable students who weren't in mathematical or scientific fields to be able to use computers in their work. It soon became available on many personal computers

LOGO

Jan 1, 1967

An educational programming language best know today for its use of turtles to draw images on the screen, which taught users about programming in a simple way

C

Jan 1, 1972

C has become the grandfather of many of todays programming languages, and is one of the most widely spread languages ever. It was designed to efficiently map straight to machine code so its was very useful for coding things like operating systems, wich need to have a close relationship with hardware.

SQL

Jan 1, 1978

Structured Query Language is a specialised language created for managing data held in a relational database

C++

Jan 1, 1983

A descendent of C, C++ is standardised by the ISO, and focuses on performance and efficiency, as well as being a high level language that can easily manipulate low level data storage.

Mathematica/Wolfram

Jun 23, 1988

Mathematica is software that makes use of the Wolfram programming language. Based on symbolic mathematics, it is used by many in the fields of science, maths and engineering

Python

Jan 1, 1991

Designed by Guido van Rossum, Python aims to enhance code readability, and let users express concepts in fewer lines than in C++ or java. It is very widely spread and is completley open-source.

Java

Jan 1, 1995

Java is object oriented and class based. It focuses on having as few dependencies as possible, saying that developers should be able to "Write once, run anywhere"

C#

Jan 1, 2000

Developed by microsoft and also standardised by ISO, C sharp focuses on being "simple, modern, general purpose and object oriented"