History of programming languages: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 17:30, 23 January 2025

Revision as of 17:30, 23 January 2025

Line 6:

{{History of computing}}

ThThe '''history of programming languages''' spans from documentation of early mechanical computers to modern tools for [[software development]]. Early programming languages were highly specialized, relying on [[mathematical notation]] and similarly obscure [[Syntax_(programming_languages)|syntax]].<ref>Hopper (1978) p.&nbsp;16.</ref> Throughout the 20th century, research in [[compiler]] theory led to the creation of [[high-level programming language]]s, which use a more accessible syntax to communicate instructions.

The first high-level programming language was [[Plankalkül]], created by [[Konrad Zuse]] between 1942 and 1945.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Knuth |first1=Donald E. |last2=Pardo |first2=Luis Trabb |title=Early development of programming languages |journal=Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology |volume=7 |pages=419–493 |publisher=Marcel Dekker}}</ref> The first high-level language to have an associated [[compiler]] was created by [[Corrado Böhm]] in 1951, for his [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]] thesis.<ref>[http://e-collection.library.ethz.ch/eserv/eth:32719/eth-32719-02.pdf Corrado Böhm's PhD thesis]</ref> The first commercially available language was [[FORTRAN]] (FORmula TRANslation), developed in 1956 (first manual appeared in 1956, but first developed in 1954) by a team led by [[John Backus]] at [[IBM]].