Programming Languages Timeline

  • PLANKALKUL

    Developed by: Konrad Zuse
    Primary Purpose: first high-level (non-von Neumann) programming language to be designed for a computer.
    Acronym: Plan Calculus
  • FORTRAN

    Developed by: John Backus
    Primary Purpose: general-purpose, imperative programming language that is especially suited to numeric computation and scientific computing
    Acronym:FORmula TRANslation, because it was designed to allow easy translation of math formulas into code
  • MATH-MATIC

    Developed by: Led By Charles Kratz
    Primary Purpose: providing algebraic-style expressions and floating-point arithmetic, and arrays rather than record structures
    Acronym: Not really named anything
  • LISP

    Developed by: John McCarthy
    Primary Purpose: easy manipulation of data strings
    Acronym: list processing
  • COBOL

    Developed by: Grace Murray Hopper
    Primary Purpose: programming language that resembled natural English -- one that would be easy to write and easy to read.primarily used in business, finance, and administrative systems for companies and governments.
    Acronym: Common Business Oriented Language
  • RPG

    Developed by: IBM
    Primary Purpose: a tool to replicate punched card processing on the IBM 1401[2] then updated to RPG II for the IBM System/3 in the late 1960s, and since evolved into an HLL equivalent to COBOL and PL/I
    Acronym: Report Program Generator
  • BASIC

    Developed by: John Kemeney and Thomas Kurtz
    Primary Purpose: a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages whose design philosophy emphasizes ease of use
    Acronym: Beginner's All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code
  • LOGO

    Developed by: Daniel G. Bobrow
    Primary Purpose: used for generating basic shapes using a turtle cursor
    Acronym: Language of Graphics Oriented
  • PASCAL

    Developed by: named after Blaise Pascal and developed by Niklaus Wirth
    Primary Purpose: a small, efficient language intended to encourage good programming practices using structured programming and data structuring
    Acronym: High level structured programming language named for 17th century mathematician Blaise Pascal
  • B

    Developed by: D. M. Ritchie and K. L. Thompson
    Primary Purpose: designed for recursive, non-numeric, machine independent applications, such as system and language software
    Acronym: B stands for B computer language (Ken Thompson; predecessor to C)
  • C

    Developed by: Dennis Ritchie at Bell Labs
    Primary Purpose: originally designed as a systems programming language, C has proved to be a powerful and flexible language that can be used for a variety of applications, from business programs to engineering
    Acronym: C is commonly used to describe the C: drive or the first hard drive on IBM compatible computers
  • ML

    Developed by: Robin Milner
    Primary Purpose: algorithm can automatically assign the types of most expressions without requiring explicit type annotations. Additionally, the use of this algorithm ensures type safety—there is a formal proof that a well-typed ML program does not cause runtime type errors
    Acronym: Machine Language
  • SQL

    Developed by: Donald Chamberlin and Raymond Boyce
    Primary Purpose: computer language aimed to store, manipulate, and query data stored in relational databases
    Acronym: Structured Query Language
  • C++

    Developed by: Bjarne Stroustrup
    Primary Purpose: an extension of C language. It is therefore possible to code C++ in a "C style" or "object-oriented style." ... C++ is a general purpose object oriented programming language.
    Acronym: C++ was originally named C with Classes, adding object oriented features, such as classes, and other enhancements to the C programming language. The language was renamed C++ in 1983, as a pun
  • ADA

    Developed by: Ada Lovelace
    Primary Purpose: Ada improves code safety and maintainability by using the compiler to find errors in favor of runtime errors
    Acronym: Not an acronym but a name into remembering Ada Lovelace
  • PYTHON

    Developed by: Guido van Rossum
    Primary Purpose: syntax which allows programmers to express concepts in fewer lines of code than possible in languages such as C++ or Java
    Acronym: No acronym
  • Visual Basic

    Developed by: Microsoft
    Primary Purpose: derived from BASIC, a user-friendly programming language designed for beginners, and it enables the rapid application development (RAD) of graphical user interface (GUI) applications, access to databases using Data Access Objects, Remote Data Objects, or ActiveX Data Objects, and creation of ActiveX controls and object
    Acronym: Easy to learn
  • PHP

    Developed by: Rasmus Lerdorf
    Primary Purpose: a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML
    Acronym: Hypertext Preprocessor
  • DELPHI

    Developed by: Embarcadero Delphi
    Primary Purpose: programming language and software development kit (SDK) for desktop, mobile, web, and console applications.[1] Delphi's compilers use their own Object Pascal dialect of Pascal and generate native code for several platforms: Windows (x86 and x64), OS X (32-bit only), iOS (32 and 64-bit) and Android
    Acronym: Name after the developer
  • JAVA

    Developed by: James Gosling
    Primary Purpose: object-oriented language similar to C++, but simplified to eliminate language features that cause common programming errors
    Acronym: joke that Java stands for "Just Another Vulnerability Announcement", referring to all the security issues that Java has had, but really it doesn't stand for anything
  • JAVASCRIPT

    Developed by: Brendan Eich
    Primary Purpose: most common form, JavaScript resides inside HTML documents, and can provide levels of interactivity to web pages that are not achievable with simple HTML
    Acronym: Doesn't really mean anything