History of Programming Languages

  • Plankalkul

    Created by Konrad Zuse, it was designed for engineering purposes.
  • Fortran

    Derived from the phrase "Formula Translation." Created by John Backus. It was developed for scientific and engineering applications.
  • Lisp

    Derived from LISt Processor and was designed by John McCarthy. It was created as a practical mathematical notation for computer programs.
  • COBOC

    Stands for "Common Business-Oriented Language and was created by Grace Hopper. It was designed for the United States department of Defense in order to create a portable language for data processing.
  • RPG

    Designed by IBM as a proprietary programming language for their hardware. Short for "Report Program Generator."
  • Basic

    Designed by John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz and stands for "Beginners All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code." It was designed for easier use of languages.
  • LOGO

    Designed by Wally Feurzeig, Seymour Papert, and Cynthia Soloman. Derived from the greek word "logos." It was designed to teach concepts related to Lisp.
  • Pascal

    Created by Niklaus Wirth, it was designed to encourage good programming practices using structured programming and data structuring.
  • B

    Designed by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie. The name "B" is derived from BCPL. (Basic Combined Programming Language) It was designed for system and language software.
  • C

    Created by Dennis Ritchie and was designed to be compiled using a relatively straightforward compiler and to provide low-level access to memory.
  • MATH-MATIC

    Also known as the AT-3, (Algebraic Translator 3) it was made by Charles Katz to be used for the UNIVAC 1.
  • ML

    Short for "Meta Language," it was created by Robin Milner. It was used for programming language research.
  • SQL

    Stands for Structured Query Language, it was created by Donald D. Chamberlin. It was designed for managing data held in a database management system.
  • ADA

    Designed by Jean Ichbiah and was intended for real-time embedded systems programming
  • C++

    Created by Bjarne Stroustrup and was made for system programming with performance, efficiency, and flexibility in mind.
  • Python

    Created by Guido van Rossum, it was designed for code readability and to code with fewer lines.
  • Visual Basic

    Created by Microsoft, it was designed to be an easy language to learn and use. Derived from the Basic language.
  • PHP

    Created by Rasmus Lerdford, it was designed for web development.
  • Java

    Created by James Gosling and was designed to have few implementation dependencies
  • Delphi

    Language based on Pascal. Created by software company Borland. It was made for easy use of programming languages.
  • Javascript

    Usually abbreviated "JS," it was created by Brendan Eich and was designed as a world wide web content producer to make webpages interactive.