# The Evolution of Computer Languages Over 136 Years ![rw-book-cover](https://readwise-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/static/images/article4.6bc1851654a0.png) URL:: https://interestingengineering.com/the-evolution-of-computer-languages-over-136-years Author:: interestingengineering.com ## Highlights > The first programmer was a woman > We’d have to go way back in 1883 to find what some consider the first programming language. That’s the year in which Ada Lovelace (the only legitimate offspring of Lord George Gordon, the Romantic poet who was known to be "mad, bad and dangerous to know") set out the algorithm for Charles Baggage’s Analytical with the goal of calculating Bernoulli numbers. ([View Highlight](https://instapaper.com/read/1414712294/16513988)) > Autocode is considered to be the first compiled computer programming language. ([View Highlight](https://instapaper.com/read/1414712294/16513991)) > A few years later John Backus created the programming language FORTAN, which stands for Formula Translation, to work through complex scientific, mathematical, and statistical work. ([View Highlight](https://instapaper.com/read/1414712294/16513997)) > In 1972, Dennis Ritchie at Bell Lab developed the language called C, which is considered the first high-level language. some would consider “the most relevant programming language in the history.” That’s because not only is it still in use today, but it also serves as the foundation for other programming languages, including C++ and C#, JavaScript, Java, and Python. ([View Highlight](https://instapaper.com/read/1414712294/16514004)) > C++ is an extension of the C language and was developed in 1983 by Bjarne Stroustrup ([View Highlight](https://instapaper.com/read/1414712294/16514008)) > The next iteration of that letter is C#, pronounced C Sharp, a kind of progression from the other two C languages that Microsoft designed in the early part of this century. It’s no surprise then that it is the language of choice for Microsoft applications, though it is also used in “a wide range of enterprise applications that run on the .NET.” ([View Highlight](https://instapaper.com/read/1414712294/16514011)) > Guido Van Rossum developed Python in 1991 and named it for the British comedy group Monty Python. ([View Highlight](https://instapaper.com/read/1414712294/16514014)) > Java was born around the same time, and it became very popular early on. Oracle provides this history of the language now incorporated into its brand. ([View Highlight](https://instapaper.com/read/1414712294/16514015)) > Despite the apparent connection to Java, JavaScript is considered a derivative of C. Here’s a fun fact: Brendan Eich created JavaScript in just 10 days in 1995. It is the language of choice for adding interactive features to a web page, and it is found in most browsers and sites. ([View Highlight](https://instapaper.com/read/1414712294/16514020)) > The first version of Ruby was released at the end of 1995. There have been several iterations since. The origin story is that Yukihiro Matsumoto (“Matz”)wanted to develop an object-oriented scripting-language that was better than what was already available. Ruby is used to build websites and mobile apps. ([View Highlight](https://instapaper.com/read/1414712294/16514026)) > Go was a language that emerged at Google and then became an open-source project in November 2009. It was intended to improve the working environment for programmers so they could write, read, and maintain large software systems more efficiently. ([View Highlight](https://instapaper.com/read/1414712294/16514030)) > In 2014 Apple invented Swift, which makes it a pretty recent addition to computer language. In the words of the parent company: “Swift is a powerful and intuitive programming language for macOS, iOS, watchOS, tvOS and beyond. Writing Swift code is interactive and fun, the syntax is concise yet expressive, and Swift includes modern features developers love.” ([View Highlight](https://instapaper.com/read/1414712294/16514034)) > Castro offers some of his takes, with a prediction of the increasing attention for language used in or LLVM (Low Level Virtual Machines) He lists some of the relevant languages: ActionScript, Ada, C#, Common Lisp, Crystal, CUDA, D, Delphi, Fortran, Graphical G Programming Language, Halide, Haskell, Java bytecode, Julia, Kotlin, Lua, Objective-C, OpenGL Shading Language, Pony, Python, R, Ruby Rust, Scala Swift, and Xojo. ([View Highlight](https://instapaper.com/read/1414712294/16514045)) --- Title: The Evolution of Computer Languages Over 136 Years Author: interestingengineering.com Tags: readwise, articles date: 2024-01-30 --- # The Evolution of Computer Languages Over 136 Years ![rw-book-cover](https://readwise-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/static/images/article4.6bc1851654a0.png) URL:: https://interestingengineering.com/the-evolution-of-computer-languages-over-136-years Author:: interestingengineering.com ## AI-Generated Summary None ## Highlights > The first programmer was a woman > We’d have to go way back in 1883 to find what some consider the first programming language. That’s the year in which Ada Lovelace (the only legitimate offspring of Lord George Gordon, the Romantic poet who was known to be "mad, bad and dangerous to know") set out the algorithm for Charles Baggage’s Analytical with the goal of calculating Bernoulli numbers. ([View Highlight](https://instapaper.com/read/1414712294/16513988)) > Autocode is considered to be the first compiled computer programming language. ([View Highlight](https://instapaper.com/read/1414712294/16513991)) > A few years later John Backus created the programming language FORTAN, which stands for Formula Translation, to work through complex scientific, mathematical, and statistical work. ([View Highlight](https://instapaper.com/read/1414712294/16513997)) > In 1972, Dennis Ritchie at Bell Lab developed the language called C, which is considered the first high-level language. some would consider “the most relevant programming language in the history.” That’s because not only is it still in use today, but it also serves as the foundation for other programming languages, including C++ and C#, JavaScript, Java, and Python. ([View Highlight](https://instapaper.com/read/1414712294/16514004)) > C++ is an extension of the C language and was developed in 1983 by Bjarne Stroustrup ([View Highlight](https://instapaper.com/read/1414712294/16514008)) > The next iteration of that letter is C#, pronounced C Sharp, a kind of progression from the other two C languages that Microsoft designed in the early part of this century. It’s no surprise then that it is the language of choice for Microsoft applications, though it is also used in “a wide range of enterprise applications that run on the .NET.” ([View Highlight](https://instapaper.com/read/1414712294/16514011)) > Guido Van Rossum developed Python in 1991 and named it for the British comedy group Monty Python. ([View Highlight](https://instapaper.com/read/1414712294/16514014)) > Java was born around the same time, and it became very popular early on. Oracle provides this history of the language now incorporated into its brand. ([View Highlight](https://instapaper.com/read/1414712294/16514015)) > Despite the apparent connection to Java, JavaScript is considered a derivative of C. Here’s a fun fact: Brendan Eich created JavaScript in just 10 days in 1995. It is the language of choice for adding interactive features to a web page, and it is found in most browsers and sites. ([View Highlight](https://instapaper.com/read/1414712294/16514020)) > The first version of Ruby was released at the end of 1995. There have been several iterations since. The origin story is that Yukihiro Matsumoto (“Matz”)wanted to develop an object-oriented scripting-language that was better than what was already available. Ruby is used to build websites and mobile apps. ([View Highlight](https://instapaper.com/read/1414712294/16514026)) > Go was a language that emerged at Google and then became an open-source project in November 2009. It was intended to improve the working environment for programmers so they could write, read, and maintain large software systems more efficiently. ([View Highlight](https://instapaper.com/read/1414712294/16514030)) > In 2014 Apple invented Swift, which makes it a pretty recent addition to computer language. In the words of the parent company: “Swift is a powerful and intuitive programming language for macOS, iOS, watchOS, tvOS and beyond. Writing Swift code is interactive and fun, the syntax is concise yet expressive, and Swift includes modern features developers love.” ([View Highlight](https://instapaper.com/read/1414712294/16514034)) > Castro offers some of his takes, with a prediction of the increasing attention for language used in or LLVM (Low Level Virtual Machines) He lists some of the relevant languages: ActionScript, Ada, C#, Common Lisp, Crystal, CUDA, D, Delphi, Fortran, Graphical G Programming Language, Halide, Haskell, Java bytecode, Julia, Kotlin, Lua, Objective-C, OpenGL Shading Language, Pony, Python, R, Ruby Rust, Scala Swift, and Xojo. ([View Highlight](https://instapaper.com/read/1414712294/16514045))