Programming Languages Timeline

By Nebuelaeus

  • Plankalkul

    Konrad Zuse developes Pankalkul (german for plan calculus) for engineering software.

  • Fortran

    John Backus developes Fortran(FORmula TRANslaing system) for use in computation heavy programs, such as weather prediction software.

  • MATH-MATIC

    Charles Katz led a group in developement of Math-Matic, which is a compiler for UNIVAC I & II.

  • Lisp

    John McCarthy developes Lisp for use in AI

  • COBOL

    Grace Hopper developes COBOL (COmmon Busiess-Oriented Language) for use in business applications.

  • RPG

    IBM developes RPG (Report Program Generator) for business applications.

  • Basic

    John George Kemeny and Thomas Eugene Kurtz develope BASIC (Begginer's All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) as tool for students to more easily create their own software.

  • Logo

    Wally Feurzeig and Seymour Papert develope Logo to help teach programmer to students. The name, Logo, is deried from the greek word for thought.

  • B

    Ken Thompson developes B (a contraction of BCPL) for Bell.

  • PASCAL

    Niklaus Wirth develoed Pascal to be an efficient programming language which would help to encourage good programming practices. It is named after the mathematician Blaise Pascal.

  • C

    Dennis Ritchie creates C, which is now often used in place of assembly languages.

  • ML

    ML (Meta Language) is developed by Robert Milner as a general purpose programming language.

  • SQL

    Donald D Chamberlin creates SQL (Structured Query Language) to manage data held in a "relational database management system".

  • Ada

    Jean Ichbiah makes Ada to replace the hundreds of different languages used by the Department of Defense.

  • C++

    Bjarne Stroustrup creates C++ which is widely used in system software, embedded software, device drivers, application software, and entertainment software.

  • Python

    Guido Van Rossum creates Python as a general purpose high-level programming language.

  • Visual Basic

    Microsoft developes Visual Basic to provide an easy way to rappidly produce GUI applications.

  • Delphi

    Delphi(a reference to the Oracle at Delphi) is developed by Borland to make standalone GUI programs and 32 bit console applications.

  • Java

    James Gosling makes Java, which is commonly used to write applications that can be used on multiple platforms.

  • Javascript

    Brendan Eich creates Javascript which is used primarily for server programming and web browsers.

  • PHP

    Rasmus Lerdorf creates PHP for use in web development. PHP originally stood for 'Personal Home Page' but now stands for 'HyPertext Processor'