Programming Languages

Programming Languages dabeaz 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

BASIC

6502 Assembly

AppleSoft BASIC

BASIC (TRS-80 Model I)

6809 Assembly

Pascal

68k Assembly

Modula-2

bash

TeX

AWK

x86 Assembly

MIPS Assembly

MATLAB

Perl

Tcl

C++

Scheme

Python

Objective-C

Ruby

Java

PHP

Javascript

BASIC

1978–1987

The programming language used in a "Computers for Kids" course taught at the community college. Wrote short BASIC programs on punch-cards and fed them into an IBM mainframe. Later wrote BASIC programs on an Ohio Scientific Superboard II computer. This system had 8K of RAM and Microsoft BASIC installed.

6502 Assembly

1981–1986

Initially wrote short assembly functions on an Ohio Scientific Superboard II. Later moved to writing assembly language on the Apple 2 for games. Later implemented a 3D graphics/plotting library for the Apple 2 in about 5000 lines of assembly.

AppleSoft BASIC

1981–1987

Wrote programs on the family Apple ][+, later on an Apple 2e that I purchased.

BASIC (TRS-80 Model I)

1983

Wrote BASIC programs on the TRS-80 Model 3 in junior high school (8th grade)

6809 Assembly

1985

Played with controlling some hardware devices using a 6809 card for a S100 bus system. Involved punching codes in directly with a hex keypad.

Pascal

1986–1987

Programming language used in AP Computer Science course.

68k Assembly

1986

Wrote some assembly for a special 68000 coprocessor card for an Apple 2.

Modula-2

1990

Wrote a small amount of Modula-2 related to a graphics library I implemented in x86 assembler.

bash

1990–

Still write simple shell scripts from time to time.

TeX

1990–2000

Written numerous scientific papers in Latex.

AWK

1990–1996

Used awk quite a bit for short data processing tasks--however, all of my programs were really minimal at best.

x86 Assembly

1990–

Wrote a high performance SVGA graphics device driver library entirely in x86 assembler wrapped with an interface that allowed it to be called from Modula-2. Still sometimes dive into it for debugging and other low-level hacking.

1990–

Learned on the job when writing scientific software. One of my favorite programming languages that I still use now.

MIPS Assembly

1993–1996

Used heavily in computer architecture courses. Used to study performance of C programs on SGI systems.

MATLAB

1994–1998

Used occasionally in graduate school.

Perl

1995–

Wrote the first Swig modules for both Perl 4 and Perl 5. Wouldn't say that I'm fluent, but I still use it every now and then--mainly to maintain some wiki software that's written in Perl.

1995

Used ML in a course during my first year of my Ph.D. program. It may not had the intended effect, but my experience with ML is what got me interested in scripting languages (Tcl, Perl, Python, etc.).

Tcl

1995–2001

Tcl was the first scripting language supported by the Swig project. I maintained the Tcl module until about 2001 or so.

C++

1996–

Wrote the Swig project in C++ and implemented most of Swig's C++ parsing support. I try to avoid C++ as much as possible now.

Scheme

1996–2001

Developed a Swig module for Guile--a scheme variant. In 2001, taught Scheme at the university using SICP.

Python

1996–

First discovered Python after reading about it Computers in Physics. Developed the Python Swig module. My language of choice these days--not surprising since I also wrote a book about it.

Objective-C

1997–1998

Decided to write all of the programs in my Machine Learning course in Objective-C---mainly just for kicks. It was fun.

Ruby

1998–

I'm done some work with it in the context of the Swig Ruby module. Taught it to students in a university course around 2007.

Java

1999

Used Java in the first course I taught as a university professor (Internet Programming). Hated it--maybe because I was already well into Python.

PHP

2002–2004

Taught and used PHP when teaching Internet courses at the University.

Javascript

2007–

Not being a web programmer, I've only made occasional use of it. I'm much better at hacking someone else's JS than writing it from scratch.