Programming Languages

Programming Languages growe has used:

Timeline Graph

1970

1971

1972

1973

1974

1975

1976

1977

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

2025

BASIC

Fortran

Commodore BASIC

6502 Assembly

bash

TeX

LISP

PostScript

C++

Pascal

Prolog

Delphi

Perl

VisualBasic

Java

Javascript

PHP

Ruby

BASIC

1970–

The very first computer program I wrote was around 1970 when I was in high school. I can't say for sure the language was Basic. All I can remember is that I wrote the program by using "mark sense" cards, where a soft pencil was used to fill in squares on a card, which was then read by an optical reader and sent to the computer. The program calculated the area of a triangle.

Fortran

1971–1985

Ah, Fortran, my first computer language. I learned it from the old "Fortran with Watfor and Watfiv" book, and got access to the mainframe at UBC's computing centre by doing a computing student's homework for him (now it can be told - well it was almost 40 years ago). You don't hear that much about Fortran these days, but for number crunching it's still one of the best. Fortran is an abbreviation of 'formula translator' after all.

1982–

I learned C the classic way - by reading the first edition of Kernighan & Ritchie. Although a difficult language in which to write anything large due to its lack of OO features, it is still good for learning the way computers handle code and memory on an intimate level.

Commodore BASIC

1984–1987

Wrote a few progs for my old Commodore 64

6502 Assembly

1984–

Wrote a few simple 6502 programs for my old Commodore 64, mainly as an exercise to see how it worked.

bash

1987–

I didn't realize Bash counted as a language, but yes, I've written a few scripts on it back in the days when I had to use a Unix machine. It's OK if you're one of those Cretaceous period computer people who regard graphical interfaces as a sign of inbreeding.

TeX

1987–

Well, not pure Tex, but I've done a lot with Latex. Despite its lack of WYSIWYG editors (there are some, like Lyx, that get close, though), it's probably still the most versatile way of writing mathematical documents. My first book (on theoretical biology) was written entirely in Latex. Even though I've written virtually no real computer code since I quit (more than a year ago now), I still use Latex.

LISP

1990–

Lots of Insane Stupid Parentheses indeed. I've made a few attempts at learning Lisp and its co-demon Prolog, but my mind just doesn't work that way.

PostScript

1990–

I wouldn't say I've written entire programs in Postscript, but I have at some point got to the level where I could look through Postscript code and figure out what it was doing. These days it seems mainly to be a format for those caught in the Cretaceous Linux era.

C++

1990–

My first foray into OO programming was with C++, and it gave rise to my first book on programming. Have taught it for many, many years and although it is demanding of the programmer, especially with regards to memory management, it is an excellent language in which to learn how computer programs really work.

Pascal

1990–

Used to teach a few courses in Pascal back in the early 1990s. It was OKish I guess, but I could never see the point of "teaching languages" - that is, languages designed specifically for teaching programming, but not used in writing any real code. The students simply have to unlearn the language the following year when they learn a real one. Utterly pointless. Teach them Java or C++ or C# or whatever right from the start.

Prolog

1991–

[See Lisp.] Have made a few valiant attempts at learning Prolog, but I'm not recursive at heart I'm afraid. I just don't get it.

Delphi

1992

Tried it very briefly at one point and although it seemed nice enough, it was Pascal and seemed pretty well irrelevant to the real world.

Perl

1995–

Have written a few CGI script handlers in Perl, but it's an absolutely vile language. Its main purpose seems to be to keep Larry Wall's ego inflated - his book on Perl is filled with page after page of "see how much smarter than you I am" for being able to write Perl code that can navigate a toaster to Jupiter in only 2 lines and uses only obscure punctuation symbols.

VisualBasic

1995–

Have written a few programs in early versions of VB, but haven't used it properly since it became OO and got integrated into .NET. The earlier versions were pretty horrid, and now that C# exists for .NET programming, I can't see VB's relevance any more except to pander to those who never grew out of its earlier versions.

Java

1996–

I would guess I've written more in Java than any other language, and I started using it very soon after it came out. Even written 3 books on it. Despite its limitations, it is still a very good language for writing solid OO code, and its vast user base means a solution to almost any problem is easily available.

Javascript

2000–2005

Seemed a horribly clunky language with no relation to Java that I could see. Hated it.

2002–

Although C# and .NET were pretty obviously Microsoft's attempt to kill off Java (C# and Java are virtually identical over enormous ranges of code), it's evolved into a highly usable and pleasing alternative to Java. I taught the GUI course in C# for the last few years at the university, and my last programming book was on C#. I really can't see much to separate C# and Java from an ease-of-use viewpoint, and I'd consider writing a large GUI-oriented program in either.

PHP

2003–

Haven't written a lot in PHP, but did knock up a couple of fairly simple web pages. Never got into its OO features, so I'm not sure how it holds up as a heavy-duty language.

Ruby

2006–

Haven't written much more than 'hello world' in Ruby but from what I've seen of it, it looks quite useful.