Brief History of Programming Languages:-
1. Assembler
The language closest to the Central Processing Unit or rather the processor was developed in the period from 1956 to 1963 and was pioneered by IBM. It is the most low-level language in the world and finds use when programming the instructions for the processor and other hardware.
2. Lisp
Lisp, developed by John McCarthy in 1956, stands for List Processing. It was a functional language based on the lambda concept and has a wide variety of dialects including the popular Scheme programming language. ANSI’s Common Lisp is the accepted standard since 1994.
3. FORTRAN
Formula Translation or more popularly FORTRAN was one of the most popular languages of all times. It was developed at IBM by John Backus in 1957. It had a block structure and became widely popular in the early 1960s. There are as many as 40 different compilers of FORTRAN.
4. COBOL
COBOL, developed in 1959 at the Conference of Data Systems Languages, is an acronym for Common Business Oriented Language. There is no standard available for its implementation and the language still finds use in the modern day world of programming.
5. BASIC
BASIC, short for Beginners All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code was first made by John Kemeny and Tom Kurtz in 1964 at Dartmouth College. It was a very simple, yet very effective language. It became widely popular in the form of Altair BASIC (and later in the IBM machines) which was made by Bill Gates and Paul Allen (who were then the only members of Microsoft) in 1975.
6. Pascal
Pascal was another block structured language that served as an inspiration for languages such as Ada and Visual Basic. It was developed by Professor Niklaus Wirth in 1970.
7. C
C, a high-level programming language originally made in to-to with the Unix operating system in 1969-70, is one of the most spectacular languages in the field of computers. Dennis Ritchie made the most popular version in 1972 at AT&T Bell Labs. It was only in 1980s that it was standardized by the ANSI committee. C is still in use today and is often used by students as a first language.
8. C++
C++ was developed around 1983 to 1985 by Bjarne Stroustrup and was originally called “C with Classes”. It introduced the concept of Object-Oriented Programming in C and was inspired by another language called Simula. C++ is also in use today and a favorite among many programmers.
9. Perl
Perl was made in 1987 by Larry Wall and is a scripting language. It is most widely used over the World Wide Web including mail filtering.
10. Visual Basic
Visual Basic, a product of Microsoft first introduced in 1991, is by far one of the easiest languages to run. It is graphically oriented which means that instead of having to program the windows, buttons etc. for a GUI, one can simple draw them by hand and only program the underlying main code. Visual Basic can be used to develop all kinds of software and is based on the already popular BASIC language.
11. JAVA
Java, developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems in 1994, is the language that changed the way internet looked. It took the whole programming language by surprise by its sheer degree of power and efficiency. Java can be used to develop standalone programs or dependent programs (that is, applets). Java can be easily identified by its Coffee cup logo.
12. JavaScript
Developed by Sun Microsystems and Netscape in 1995 as a scripting language based on Java, JavaScript is used to make HTML documents more interactive and dynamic. JavaScript code is typically embedded into HTML code.
13. VBScript
VBScript was made by Microsoft in 1997 and is similar in functionality to JavaScript. It is based on the Visual Basic language.
Others:-Ruby, C# (C-sharp), MATLAB etc.
Many languages have been developed over the years with varying degree of success. Some modern languages such as Ruby, C# (C-sharp), MATLAB (Matrix Laboratory) etc. are slowly and steadily gaining momentum in the programming world.
1. Assembler
The language closest to the Central Processing Unit or rather the processor was developed in the period from 1956 to 1963 and was pioneered by IBM. It is the most low-level language in the world and finds use when programming the instructions for the processor and other hardware.
2. Lisp
Lisp, developed by John McCarthy in 1956, stands for List Processing. It was a functional language based on the lambda concept and has a wide variety of dialects including the popular Scheme programming language. ANSI’s Common Lisp is the accepted standard since 1994.
3. FORTRAN
Formula Translation or more popularly FORTRAN was one of the most popular languages of all times. It was developed at IBM by John Backus in 1957. It had a block structure and became widely popular in the early 1960s. There are as many as 40 different compilers of FORTRAN.
4. COBOL
COBOL, developed in 1959 at the Conference of Data Systems Languages, is an acronym for Common Business Oriented Language. There is no standard available for its implementation and the language still finds use in the modern day world of programming.
5. BASIC
BASIC, short for Beginners All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code was first made by John Kemeny and Tom Kurtz in 1964 at Dartmouth College. It was a very simple, yet very effective language. It became widely popular in the form of Altair BASIC (and later in the IBM machines) which was made by Bill Gates and Paul Allen (who were then the only members of Microsoft) in 1975.
6. Pascal
Pascal was another block structured language that served as an inspiration for languages such as Ada and Visual Basic. It was developed by Professor Niklaus Wirth in 1970.
7. C
C, a high-level programming language originally made in to-to with the Unix operating system in 1969-70, is one of the most spectacular languages in the field of computers. Dennis Ritchie made the most popular version in 1972 at AT&T Bell Labs. It was only in 1980s that it was standardized by the ANSI committee. C is still in use today and is often used by students as a first language.
8. C++
C++ was developed around 1983 to 1985 by Bjarne Stroustrup and was originally called “C with Classes”. It introduced the concept of Object-Oriented Programming in C and was inspired by another language called Simula. C++ is also in use today and a favorite among many programmers.
9. Perl
Perl was made in 1987 by Larry Wall and is a scripting language. It is most widely used over the World Wide Web including mail filtering.
10. Visual Basic
Visual Basic, a product of Microsoft first introduced in 1991, is by far one of the easiest languages to run. It is graphically oriented which means that instead of having to program the windows, buttons etc. for a GUI, one can simple draw them by hand and only program the underlying main code. Visual Basic can be used to develop all kinds of software and is based on the already popular BASIC language.
11. JAVA
Java, developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems in 1994, is the language that changed the way internet looked. It took the whole programming language by surprise by its sheer degree of power and efficiency. Java can be used to develop standalone programs or dependent programs (that is, applets). Java can be easily identified by its Coffee cup logo.
12. JavaScript
Developed by Sun Microsystems and Netscape in 1995 as a scripting language based on Java, JavaScript is used to make HTML documents more interactive and dynamic. JavaScript code is typically embedded into HTML code.
13. VBScript
VBScript was made by Microsoft in 1997 and is similar in functionality to JavaScript. It is based on the Visual Basic language.
Others:-Ruby, C# (C-sharp), MATLAB etc.
Many languages have been developed over the years with varying degree of success. Some modern languages such as Ruby, C# (C-sharp), MATLAB (Matrix Laboratory) etc. are slowly and steadily gaining momentum in the programming world.