History of programming languages: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 08:26, 25 April 2025

Revision as of 08:26, 25 April 2025

Line 6:

{{History of computing}}

(WATER BUCKET! RELEASE!!!) The '''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]].

== Early history ==

During 1666-16891842–1849, [[Ada Lovelace]] translated the memoir of Italian mathematician [[Luigi Menabrea]] about [[Charles Babbage]]'s newest proposed machine: the [[Analytical Engine]]; she supplemented the memoir with notes that specified in detail a method for calculating [[Bernoulli number]]s with the engine, recognized by most of historians as the world's first published computer program.<ref>{{citation |last1=Fuegi |first1=J. |last2=Francis |first2=J. |title=Lovelace & Babbage and the creation of the 1843 'notes'|journal=Annals of the History of Computing |volume=25 |issue=4|date=October–December 2003 |doi=10.1109/MAHC.2003.1253887 |pages=16–26}}</ref>

[[Jacquard Loom]]s and Charles Babbage's [[Difference engine|Difference Engine]] both were designed to utilize [[punched card]]s,<ref name="Bales">{{cite web |last=Bales |first=Rebecca |title=Charles Babbage Analytical Engine Explained|url=https://history-computer.com/charles-babbage-analytical-engine/|website=history-computer.com|date=24 July 2023}}</ref><ref name="Swade">{{cite web |last=Swade |first=Doron |title=The Engines|url=https://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/engines/|website=computerhistory.org|access-date=23 February 2024}}</ref> which would describe the sequence of operations that their programmable machines should perform.