Programming Languages

Programming Languages avowkind has used:

Timeline Graph

1978

1979

1980

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

1986

1987

1988

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

2024

Fortran

Assembly

BASIC

Algol 68

Z80 Assembly

Pascal

Forth

Modula-2

Smalltalk

C++

Java

Fortran

1978–1983

One of my very first programming experiences, I was on a week training course from school at a local uni. I had to write a how many birds can sit on a wire simulation. Later at Uni the Fortran tutor was so bad we just bought the book and starting writing.

Assembly

1979–1990

First assembler was Z80 on the Sinclair ZX80. I disassembled the rom and then poked a new program in. Later 1800 - 1806, then Intel family and 6800 -> 68000, Then ARM. I love the ARM.

BASIC

1979–1980

First basic was on a teletype to guildford uni from school. I wrote a monopoly game and stored it on punched tape - used a whole reel. Learned Sinclair Basic for the ZX80. Then moved to Forth and refused ever to go back.

Algol 68

1980–1981

First year Uni programming course. precursor to pascal. block programming, tidy readable script.

Z80 Assembly

1980–1990

Used to know the op codes by heart.

Pascal

1983–1990

Learned at Uni and completed final year project in it. Dabbled a bit in Delphi later on but that spoiled it really. Still prefer pascal syntax to C though.

Forth

1984–2000

I spent 10 years programming Forth full time, I love this language and its the only one I could recreate from scratch after the apocolypse. Some of those programs are still running. Last bite was Y2K validating older Forth stuff.

Modula-2

1986

tried it, mainly as the compiler was one of the early ones to bust the 640K memorylimit on the PC. But never really took off.

1986–

First used Turbo C. Then Zorland, then MS Visual Studio. Still occasionally maintaining C modules. Still the sharpest knife in the box.

Smalltalk

1986–1987

loved this as the first environment where I could choose my editor colours. Wrote a simulator for traffic flows.

C++

1988–

Moved to this from Smalltalk for a traffic simulation and then used it for the next 20 years.

Java

1990–

I remember thinking how this new fangled VM version of C++ was going to gain mindshare but being annoyed that they made so much of it being a Virtual machine, I had been using virtual machines on Forth forever. Still the main tool today.