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Computer History: A Timeline of Computer

Programming Languages

October 15, 2018

Reading time: 5 minutes

In today's world, computer programming is required to keep the systems

and devices we use every day operating smoothly. Programming
languages enable humans to interact with machines and make them
perform necessary operations. Humans and machines process
information differently, and programming languages are the key to
bridging the gap between people and computers.

1883: The first programming language was developed in 1883 when Ada
Lovelace and Charles Babbage worked together on the Analytical Engine,
which was a primitive mechanical computer. Lovelace was able to discern
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the importance of numbers, realizing that they could represent more than
just numerical values of things. Lovelace wrote an algorithm for the
Analytical Engine, the first computer program, to compute Bernoulli
numbers.

Ada and the First Computer

1949: Assembly language was first used as a type of computer

programming language that was able to simplify machine code language,
which is necessary for telling a computer what to do.

1952: Alick Glennie developed Autocode, which some consider to be the

first compiled computer programming language. This means it could be
translated directly into machine code.

1957: John Backus created FORTRAN, which is a computer programming

language for working with scientific, mathematical, and statistical
projects.

John Backus

1958: Algol was created as an algorithmic language. It was also a

precursor to programming languages such as Java and C.

1959: COBOL was created by Dr. Grace Murray Hopper to be a language

that could operate on all types of computers.

Grace Murray Hopper

1959: John McCarthy created LISP, which is still used today. This
programming language was designed for use in artificial intelligence
research, and today, it can be used with Python and Ruby.

The Roots of LISP

1964: John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz developed BASIC for students
without a strong background in technology and math, enabling them to still
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1970: Niklaus Wirth developed Pascal, naming it after Blaise Pascal. This
language is easy to learn and was the main language used by Apple for
early software development.

The Pascal Language Page

1972: Alan Kay, Adele Goldberg, and Dan Ingalls developed Smalltalk, which
enabled computer programmers to change code quickly.

1972: Dennis Ritchie developed C, generally regarded as the first high-level

programming language. This means that it's closer to human language
and less like machine code.

The C Programming Language

1972: Donald D. Chamberlin and Raymond F. Boyce developed SQL for IBM.
This language was used for viewing and changing data stored in
databases.

Introduction to SQL

1978: Cleve Moler developed MATLAB for writing math programs. This
language is used for research and education.

1983: Brad Cox and Tom Love created Objective-C as the main language
used for writing Apple software.

1983: Bjarne Stroustrup created C++, which is an extension of the C

programming language. This is one of the most used languages in the
world.

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