We all know that a programming language is a set of grammatical rules used to define computer programs. It is a standardized communication language used to issue instructions to computers. A computer language allows programmers to accurately define the data the computer needs to use and precisely define the actions that should be taken under different circumstances. Although people have repeatedly attempted to create a universal programming language, none of those attempts has succeeded. The reason there are so many different programming languages is that the original intentions behind designing programming languages differ, the pursuit of language learning curves differs, and there are differences in operating costs between different programs, etc.
The image below depicts the entire history of programming languages. It includes the inventors of various programming languages, the characteristics and applicable fields of programming languages, which websites or companies use them, etc. (Click the image to viewFull HD image）。
Programming Language History
The history of programming languages predates the emergence of true computers. In the 19th century, "programmable" looms and piano-playing devices appeared, and they were all examples of domain-specific languages (DSLs).
The Chronicle of Programming Language Development
We have counted a total of 256 programming languages. Of course, only some of these numerous languages are commonly used or practical.
- 1951 – Regional Assembly Language
- 1952 – Autocode
- 1954 – IPL (ancestor of the LISP language)
- 1955 – FLOW-MATIC (ancestor of the COBOL language)
- 1957 – FORTRAN (the first compiled language)
- 1957 – COMTRAN (ancestor of the COBOL language)
- 1958 – LISP
- 1958 – ALGOL 58
- 1959 – FACT (ancestor of the COBOL language)
- 1959 – COBOL
- 1959 – RPG
- 1962 – APL
- 1962 – Simula
- 1962 – SNOBOL
- 1963 – CPL (ancestor of the C language)
- 1964 – BASIC
- 1964 – PL/I
- 1966 – JOSS
- 1967 – BCPL (ancestor of the C language)
- 1968 – Logo
- 1969 – B (ancestor of the C language)
- 1970 – Pascal
- 1970 – Forth
- 1972 – C
- 1972 – Smalltalk
- 1972 – Prolog
- 1973 – ML
- 1975 – Scheme
- 1978 – SQL
- 1980 – C++ (C with classes, renamed in July 1983)
- 1983 – Ada
- 1984 – Common Lisp
- 1984 – MATLAB
- 1985 – Eiffel
- 1986 – Objective-C
- 1986 – Erlang
- 1987 – Perl
- 1988 – Tcl
- 1988 – Mathematica
- 1989 – FL
- 1990 – Haskell
- 1991 – Python
- 1991 – Visual Basic
- 1993 – Ruby
- 1993 – Lua
- 1994 – CLOS (part of ANSI Common Lisp)
- 1995 – Java
- 1995 – Delphi (Object Pascal)
- 1995 – JavaScript
- 1995 – PHP
- 1996 – WebDNA
- 1997 – Rebol
- 1999 – D
- 2000 – ActionScript
- 2001 – C#
- 2001 – Visual Basic .NET
- 2002 – F#
- 2003 – Groovy
- 2003 – Scala
- 2007 – Clojure
- 2009 – Go
- 2011 – Dart
From 1951 to the present, humanity has invented a total of 256 programming languages, and each language has emerged with certain new features. Programming languages are constantly being innovated, and soon new programming languages beyond this list will appear.