The Brief History of Programming Languages

Summary

This video script offers a historical journey through the evolution of programming languages, starting with Ada Lovelace's work on the analytical engine in 1883. It highlights key milestones, including the creation of assembly in 1949, Fortran in 1957, and influential languages like Algol, COBOL, Lisp, and C. The script also covers modern languages like Python, Java, and Swift, showcasing the development of computing and the ongoing relevance of these languages in various fields.

Takeaways

• 😀 Ada Lovelace is often recognized as the first computer programmer for her work on Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine in 1843.
• 🔧 The first assembly language was created in 1949, closely tied to machine code and first implemented in the EDSAC at the University of Cambridge.
• 🔢 Auto-code in 1952 was a term for a family of early programming languages, with the first being developed at the University of Manchester.
• 📈 Fortran, developed in 1957, is still widely used today, especially for mathematical calculations and benchmarking the world's fastest supercomputers.
• 🔠 Algol, introduced in 1958, was influential in the development of languages like Pascal, C, C++, and Java, and introduced nested function definitions and lexical scoping.
• 💼 COBOL, developed in 1959, was designed for business applications and is still found in systems like ATMs and telephone networks.
• 📝 Lisp, created in 1959, is one of the oldest high-level programming languages and has been pivotal in the study of artificial intelligence.
• 🎓 BASIC, introduced in 1964, was designed to be accessible to students without a strong math background, and was later adapted by Bill Gates and Paul Allen for one of Microsoft's first products.
• 🎨 Pascal, developed in 1970, was known for encouraging good programming practices and was used in early Apple software development.
• 🗣️ Smalltalk, created in 1972, allowed for dynamic code changes and inspired features in modern programming languages like Python.
• 🔩 C, developed in 1972 by Dennis Ritchie, is considered the first true high-level programming language and has influenced many subsequent languages.

Q & A

Who is considered the first computer programmer and what was their contribution?

Ada Lovelace is considered the first computer programmer. She developed the algorithm for the Analytical Engine, which was used to compute Bernoulli numbers for Charles Babbage, the originator of the concept of a digital computer.

What is the significance of the year 1949 in the history of programming languages?

In 1949, the low-level language known as assembly was created. It had a strong relationship between the instructions within the language and machine code instructions and was first widely implemented in the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC).

What was the first programming language to run through a compiler?

Auto-code, developed at the University of Manchester by Alec Glenny for the Manchester Mark I, is believed to be the first programming language to run through a compiler.

What does Fortran stand for and what is its significance?

Fortran stands for Formula Translation. It was developed by IBM for complicated mathematical calculations and is still widely used today, including in programs that benchmark the world's fastest supercomputers.

What is the full form of COBOL and why was it created?

COBOL stands for Common Business-Oriented Language. It was originally developed by Dr. Grace Murray Hopper and was designed to run on all brands of computers, focusing on business finance and administrative systems.

What is the significance of Lisp in programming language history?

Lisp, standing for List Processing Language, is considered the second oldest high-level programming language after Fortran. It is known for its use of linked lists as a key data structure and became popular for the study of artificial intelligence.

What was the purpose of creating the BASIC programming language?

BASIC, which stands for Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, was created by John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz at Dartmouth College. It was designed for students without a strong background in mathematics to enable them to effectively use computers.

What is the origin of the programming language Pascal and its intended use?

Pascal was developed by Niklaus Wirth and named after the French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal. It was designed to be relatively easy to learn and was favored for teaching computer programming, encouraging good programming style and structure.

What is the main innovation of Smalltalk and how did it influence modern programming languages?

Smalltalk's main innovation was allowing programmers to change code on the fly. It was primarily used for educational purposes and inspired several features found in modern programming languages, including Python.

Why was C programming language considered the first truly high-level programming language?

C, developed by Dennis Ritchie, is considered the first truly high-level programming language because it was the first to be designed to be closer to human language rather than machine code, enabling UNIX to run on different types of computers.

What is the significance of the year 1995 in the development of programming languages?

1995 was significant for the creation of several influential programming languages: Java, PHP, Ruby, and JavaScript. Each of these languages has had a substantial impact on various aspects of software development, particularly in web development and data science.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Early Beginnings of Programming Languages

This paragraph delves into the origins of programming, starting from Ada Lovelace's algorithm for the analytical engine in 1883, which is considered the first computer programming language. It then skips to 1949 with the creation of assembly language, closely tied to machine code, and implemented in the EDSAC at Cambridge University. The narrative continues with the development of auto code in 1952, Fortran in 1957, Algol in 1958, and COBOL in 1959, each with its unique characteristics and contributions to the field of programming. The paragraph concludes with the introduction of Lisp in 1959, emphasizing its influence on artificial intelligence studies.

05:01

🌟 Evolution of Programming Languages in the 20th Century

The second paragraph outlines the evolution of programming languages from BASIC in 1964, designed for beginners by John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz at Dartmouth College, to Pascal in 1970, known for its structured approach to teaching programming. It mentions the creation of Smalltalk in 1972, influential in modern programming languages, and the development of C by Dennis Ritchie in 1972, which had a significant impact on future languages and is still widely used. The paragraph also covers SQL's creation in 1972, MATLAB in 1978 for mathematical computations, Objective C in 1983, and C++ in 1983, highlighting their respective uses and influences. Perl's introduction in 1987 as a scripting language and the development of Python in 1990 for readability and ease of use are also summarized.

10:02

🚀 The 1990s: A Golden Era for Programming Languages

This paragraph highlights the 1990s as a pivotal decade for programming language development. It begins with Java's creation in 1995 by Sun Microsystems, designed for object-oriented design and the 'write once, run anywhere' philosophy. PHP, originally for personal web development, and Ruby, combining aspects of various languages for web development, were also created in 1995. JavaScript, developed in 10 days for web browser interactions, is noted for its importance alongside HTML and CSS. The paragraph then discusses C#'s development in 2000 by Microsoft, combining C++'s computational power with Visual Basic's simplicity, and Scala's creation in 2003 to improve upon Java's criticisms. Groovy, an improvement on Java, is also mentioned.

15:04

🛠️ Modern Programming Languages and Their Impact

The final paragraph discusses the development of Go, or Golang, in 2009 by Google to address common software system issues, highlighting its memory safety and garbage collection features. It also covers Swift's creation in 2014 by Apple as a replacement for previous languages used in their ecosystem, emphasizing its ease of use and error minimization. Corrections to previous statements about Haskell, Ruby's performance, and the first high-level programming language are provided, ensuring the information's accuracy. The paragraph ends with an invitation to subscribe and engage with the content, promising future videos with valuable insights.

Keywords

💡Programming Language

A programming language is a formal language comprising a set of instructions used to produce various kinds of output. It is the medium through which humans communicate with computers. In the video, the evolution of programming languages is traced from Ada Lovelace's algorithm for the analytical engine in 1843 to the development of Swift in 2014, showcasing the progression of how humans interact with and instruct machines.

💡Assembly Language

Assembly language is a low-level programming language that has a strong relationship with the machine code instructions of a computer's architecture. It was first widely implemented in the EDSAC, an early computer used to solve differential equations, as mentioned in the script. Assembly languages are significant in the history of programming as they bridge the gap between human-readable code and the binary code that computers execute.

💡Compiler

A compiler is a software that translates code written in a high-level programming language into machine code that a computer can execute. The script refers to the first programming language to run through a compiler as Auto-code, developed at the University of Manchester, which signifies a pivotal moment in the evolution of programming languages, enabling more complex and abstract code to be translated into machine instructions.

💡Fortran

FORTRAN, which stands for 'Formula Translation,' is a high-level programming language developed by IBM in 1957. It was primarily used for complex mathematical calculations and is still widely used today. The script highlights Fortran's significance in the history of programming languages, particularly for its role in benchmarking the world's fastest supercomputers.

💡Algorithmic Language (ALGOL)

ALGOL, short for 'Algorithmic Language,' was created in 1958 and served as a basis for many modern programming languages like Pascal, C, C++, and Java. The script points out that ALGOL introduced the concept of code blocks with beginning and ending delimiters and was the first language to implement nested function definitions with lexical scoping, making it highly influential in the development of programming languages.

💡COBOL

COBOL, which stands for 'Common Business-Oriented Language,' was developed by Dr. Grace Murray Hopper and others in 1959. It was designed to be used across different types of computers and is commonly found in systems like ATMs and telephone systems. The script notes that COBOL is still in use today, particularly for maintaining legacy applications in business and finance.

💡Lisp

Lisp, meaning 'LISt Processing,' is one of the oldest high-level programming languages, developed at MIT in 1959. It is known for its use of linked lists as a primary data structure and for its role in the study of artificial intelligence. The script mentions Lisp as a significant language in the history of programming due to its unique approach to data manipulation and its influence on subsequent languages.

💡BASIC

BASIC, which stands for 'Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code,' was developed in 1964 by John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz at Dartmouth College. It was designed to be accessible to students without a strong background in mathematics, making it a significant step in making programming more widely accessible. The script also notes that BASIC was later modified by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, becoming one of Microsoft's first products.

💡Pascal

Pascal, named after the French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal, was developed in 1970 by Niklaus Wirth. It was designed to encourage good programming practices and was relatively easy to learn. The script highlights Pascal's role in educational programming and its use in Apple's early software development.

💡C

C, developed by Dennis Ritchie in 1972 at Bell Labs, is considered the first truly high-level programming language due to its closeness to human language while still being efficient and flexible for system-level programming. The script mentions C's role in the development of UNIX and its influence on many future programming languages, making it one of the most popular languages taught in computer science education.

💡SQL

SQL, which stands for 'Structured Query Language,' was developed in 1972 by Donald Chamberlin and Raymond Boyce at IBM. It is a domain-specific language designed for managing and querying relational databases. The script notes SQL's enduring relevance in database management, illustrating its importance in the field of data storage and retrieval.

Highlights

Ada Lovelace's algorithm for the Analytical Engine in 1883 is considered the first computer programming language.

Assembly language, created in 1949, has a strong relationship with machine code instructions.

Auto-code, a term for a family of early computer programming languages, emerged in 1952.

Fortran, developed in 1957 by IBM, is used for mathematical calculations and in benchmarking the world's fastest supercomputers.

Algol, created in 1958, influenced languages like Pascal, C, C++, and Java, and introduced code blocks and nested function definitions.

COBOL, designed by Dr. Grace Murray Hopper in 1959, is still used in ATMs, telephone systems, and business finance.

Lisp, developed in 1959, is the second oldest high-level programming language and is known for its use in artificial intelligence.

BASIC, created in 1964, was designed for beginners without a strong background in mathematics.

Pascal, named after Blaise Pascal, was developed in 1970 to encourage good programming style and structure.

Smalltalk, created in 1972, allowed programmers to change code on the fly and inspired features in modern programming languages.

C, developed in 1972 by Dennis Ritchie, is considered the first true high-level programming language.

SQL, created in 1972, is designed for querying databases and is still widely used today.

MATLAB, developed in 1978, is known for advanced mathematical computations and is indispensable in mathematical research.

Objective-C, created in 1983, was the main programming language for Apple's Mac OS and iOS until Swift's development.

C++, developed in 1983, is known as C with classes and is used in high-performance software like Adobe Photoshop.

Perl, appeared in 1987, is a scripting language for text editing and is used in Linux system administration and web development.

Haskell, created in 1990, is a functional programming language used for intense number crunching.

Python, designed by Guido van Rossum in 1991, is known for its readability and ease of use.

Visual Basic, developed in 1991, features a drag-and-drop interface and is known for its ease of learning.

R, created in 1993, is used by statisticians and data scientists for data analysis and statistical software development.

Java, created in 1995, is designed for object-oriented design and has the 'write once, run anywhere' philosophy.

PHP, also from 1995, is used in web development and powers platforms like WordPress.

Ruby, created in 1995, combines aspects from various languages and is commonly found in web development.

JavaScript, developed in 1995, focuses on enhancing web browser interactions and is a core web technology.

C#, created in 2000, combines the computational ability of C++ with the simplicity of Visual Basic.

Scala, developed in 2003, combines functional programming with object-oriented programming to be concise.

Groovy, also from 2003, is an improvement on Java and is favored for its simplicity and succinctness.

Go, or Go Lang, developed in 2009 by Google, is designed to address common problems in system programming.

Swift, created in 2014 by Apple, is known for its ease of use and is used for both desktop and mobile applications.

Transcripts

here is the history of programming

languages you can find the resources I

used down in the description below our

story begins 1883 I know seems really

early for a programming language the

algorithm for the analytical engine was

developed created by a lovely Lassie Ada

Lovelace also known as the princess of

parallelograms

she studied mathematics which was

atypical for women of the period her

algorithm was used to compute Bernoulli

numbers for Charles Babbage an English

mathematician who originated the concept

of a digital computer and his analytical

machine this algorithm is widely

considered to be the first computer

programming language now let's fast

forward 66 years to 1949 the low-level

language known as assembly was created

now assembly has a strong relationship

between the instructions within the

language and machine code instructions

was first widely implemented in the

electronic a delay storage automatic

calculator also known as edsac which was

constructed by maurice wilkes at the

University of Cambridge fancy the

calculator was to use to solve

differential equations and discovered a

79 digit prime number the largest known

at the time that's a lot of digits 1952

comes around we see auto code now auto

code wasn't actually a singular

programming language but a term used to

describe family of early computer

programming languages the first of which

was developed at the University of

Manchester by Alec Glenny for the

Manchester mark one is also believed to

be the first programming language to run

through a compiler five years later in

1957 the programming language for chin I

mean Fortran emerged developed by IBM

and used mainly for complicated

mathematical calculations Fortran

actually stands for formula translation

fun fact Fortran is used in programs

that benchmarked the world's fastest

supercomputers Fortran is still used

widely today just one year later in 1958

Algol was created Algol let's see if you

can guess meaning algorithmic language

was a basis for languages like Pascal C

C++ and Java most ma

languages have syntax inspired from

Algol and is considered to be amongst

the most influential early programming

languages introducing code blocks with

beginning and end delimiter z' Algol was

also the first language to implement

nested function definitions with lexical

scoping another one year later we see

COBOL originally developed by dr. grace

Murray hopper and was designed to run on

all brains of computers COBOL meaning

common business oriented language is

very common to find in ATMs telephone

systems and general business finance and

administrative systems fun facts lakhs

of kobold were used in the terminators

vision display COBOL is still used

throughout mainframe computers on legacy

applications yet much of this current

couple development primarily maintenance

for these older applications 1959 we see

Lisp developed at MIT Lisp meaning list

processing language is considered to be

the second oldest high-level programming

language after fortune

I mean Fortran now as the name implies

linked lists are key data structure

within lists and Lisp source code is

made up of lists it also became a

popular language for the study of

artificial intelligence during the

period now it's the Vietnam War 1964 the

programming language basic was produced

by John Khomeini and Thomas Kurtz at

Dartmouth College as the name implies

Spacek was designed around students who

didn't have a strong background in

mathematics so that students would still

be able to effectively use computers a

basic stands for beginners all-purpose

symbolic instruction code later in 1975

our boy Bill Gates and Paul Allen would

alter basic which would become one of

Microsoft's first products 1970 named

after the famous French mathematician

and philosopher Blaise Pascal the

programming language Pascal was

developed by Nicolaus worth compared to

prior languages Pascal was relatively

easy to learn and was favored when

teaching computer programming during the

time it was an official language

designed to encourage good programming

style and structure and for all the

students out there that means college

your code

fun fact Pascal was used throughout

Apple

early software development 1972 rolls

around and we see small talk now this

isn't just any small talk first created

by Alan Kay Adelle Goldberg and Dan

Ingalls at Xerox its main innovation was

allowing programmers to change code on

the fly and its primary use was for

educational purposes it would come to

inspire several features found in more

modern programming languages like my

personal favorite Python funny enough in

2017 small talk was the second most

loved programming language on a stack

overflow developer survey now for

everyone's favorite also in 1972 at Bell

Labs a little language simply known as B

uh-huh

C was developed by Dennis Ritchie

despite prior languages being considered

high-level programming languages C is

believed to be the truly first

high-level programming language and by

high-level we mean it is closer to human

language dead machine code first

developed so that UNIX could run on

different types of computers C has had

some influence on many future languages

during the 1980s C began to gain

traction and is still amongst the most

popular programming languages used and

it's commonly taught throughout computer

science higher level education um

speaking from personal experience now

you thought 1972 is over but not not

quite yet my friends also during this

year we see the emergence of the ever so

faithful SQL also known as sequel

originally developed by Donald

Chamberlin and raymond boyce at IBM SQL

an acronym for structured query language

SQL is a programming language designed

around querying a database and is still

widely used in database management today

now if you've had to take a linear

algebra course recently you'll be

familiar with MATLAB created in 1978 by

Cleve Moler

MATLAB stands for matrix laboratory

creative it is argued to be amongst the

best programming languages for advanced

mathematical computations and is

indispensable in mathematical research

as a student I can assure you that

MATLAB has saved me an immeasurable

amount of time manipulating matrices for

my

classes let's take a stroll over to 1983

where we first see Objective C used

created by Brad Cox and Tom love

Objective C combines Small's talk style

messaging with the C programming

language and until the recent

development of Swift in 2014 Objective C

was the main programming language for

Apple's Mac OS and iOS in 1983 we see

another improvement on the C programming

language with C++ developed by Bjorn

Strauss up at Bell Labs C++ is also

known as C with classes and was designed

with system programming in mind

featuring more high-level features it is

currently one of the most widely used

programming languages and is used in

popular high-performance software like

Minecraft

I mean Adobe Photoshop new versions of

C++ are still being released roughly

every three years with C++ 20 being the

newest upcoming release mark your

calendars 1987 the programming language

Perl makes an appearance developed by

Larry Wald as a scripting language for

text editing oddly enough Perl has no

official acronym Corolla borrows

features from C basic and Lisp and is

commonly used in Linux system

administration web development and

network programming been a long road my

friends but now we have reached the

1990s in 1990 named after an American

mathematician Haskell Brooks curry the

programming language has scale was

created it is mostly a mathematical

programming language and is used mainly

for intense number crunching yummy SQL

innovated with type classes and utilized

type inference and lazy evaluation one

year later the famous famous programming

language Python makes an appearance

designed by cuido van Rossum Python is

much easier to read and requires overall

less lines of code

compared to previous programming

languages now I bet you didn't know or

maybe it maybe it did Python is named

after the comedy group Monty Python and

is notorious for making programmers feel

lazy because it offers so much utility

and almost uncontested

code readability it is also a favorite

language for data science purposes in

one of my personal favorite programming

languages also in 1991 we see the

emergence of Visual Basic developed by

Microsoft Visual Basic ski feature

allows users to drag and drop chunks of

code in a graphical user interface it

was designed to be extremely easy to

learn and in 2016 visual basic 6.0 1 the

technical impact award at the 19th

annual dice Awards now we've come to

1993 and the programming language are is

created at the University of Auckland in

lovely New Zealand that wasn't a New

Zealand accent rasa haka and Robert

gentlemen developed R & R is mostly used

amongst actus stuff statistician

statisticians statisticians and data

scientists for data analysis and the

development of statistical software and

as of January 2020 our ranks 18th in

terms of the most popular programming

languages as we will see 1995 was

definitely the year of the programming

language and now as all freshmen

computer science majors are familiar

with the steamy tasty java programming

language was created in 1995 by sun

microsystems

press f for respect for Sun Microsystems

originally called oak not entirely sure

why Java is commonly taught for

object-oriented design as well as having

few implementation dependencies Java was

originally intended for cable boxes but

was later improved upon for use on the

World Wide Web Java was designed around

the phrase write once run anywhere where

Java applications can run on any JVM or

JVM means Java Virtual Machine

completely independent on the underlying

computer architecture fun fact more than

three billion devices currently run Java

also in 1995 PHP originally standing for

personal homepage and the target

language for many memes on the

programmer humor subreddit PHP was

developed by Rasmus Lu Dorf and was

mostly used in web development for

example the popular blog creation site

WordPress is written in

PHP next on the 1995 train is Ruby

created by Yukihiro Matsumoto Ruby is

like Matsumoto's perfect child because

he combines all his favorite aspects

from various other programming languages

like Perl small talk basic and Lisp like

PHP Ruby is most commonly found in web

development software stacks yep Ruby

runs slower compared to other web

development languages Ruby also features

dynamic typing and garbage collection

lastly in our 1995 programming language

montage JavaScript comes to the table

developed in a mere 10 days by Brendan

Eich javascript focuses on enhancing web

browser interactions javascript is often

just-in-time compiled and is considered

a core technology along HTML and CSS for

the three big double use now we go in a

bit of a relaxation period for five

years until we hit 2000 with the

development of C hash tag I mean c-sharp

created by Microsoft as a part of

the.net initiative c-sharp was designed

to combine the computational ability of

C++ with the simplicity of Microsoft's

previous Visual Basic C sharp is

comparable to Java and widely used

through many Microsoft products and

applications c-sharp consists of strong

typing lexical scope it's

object-oriented among other features

now 2003 rolls around and we have Scala

created by Martin o darsky to combine

mathematical ie

functional programming with

object-oriented programming Scala was

focused around being concise and to

improve upon many criticisms of the

object-oriented language Java also in

2003 a language I have never heard of

until now groovy was created as an

improvement on Java created by James

stretchin ruby is favored by some

developers because of its relative

simplicity when it comes to learning as

well as it's succinct Ness now down to

our two last languages in 2009 we see

the emergence of go

also known as go lang developed by the

tech giant Google Go was designed to

help fix problems that are common in

Google's mint software system

or languages like Java and C++ would

fall short in terms of syntax go is

similar to C but with the addition of

memory safety garbage collection as well

as some other useful features golang was

amongst the highest-paid recent

technical skills and if you want to

check out some of the other highest

paying technical skills check out my

other video where I talk about the

highest paid technical skills if you

made it this far thanks for sticking

with me

lastly in 2014 the mega corporation

Apple developed the programming language

Swift as a replacement for pretty much

every other language used previously

throughout Apple in typical Apple

fashion such as C C++ and Objective C

Swift is known for its ease of use and

small room for error Swift is widely

applicable to both desktop and mobile

applications if you have a Mac or maybe

a Mac OS VM you can easily download

Xcode from the Apple App Store to start

learning in programming and Swift to

create iOS applications and that my

friends has been the brief history of

programming languages up until 2020 so

as of editing this I just have a few

brief Corrections courtesy of the

programming subreddit so I refer to

Haskell as a mathematical language by

that I meant a functional language show

meaning there are no pointers or for

loops or things like that

additionally the graph I showed of

Ruby's performance was actually outdated

and ruby in today's day is about as fast

as PHP and Python lastly I also

mentioned that C was considered to be

the first high-level programming

language some people said that the 1977

revision of Fortran as well as Lisp

Pascal and Algol could be argued to be

amongst the first as well I hope you

guys liked that video consider tuning in

to a future video of mine giving you bad

British accents when you need it and

some burps when you need it some useful

advice when you need it then my name is

Mikey consider hitting that subscribe

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what you thought the video it'd mean an

absolute ton been a pleasure and I'll

see you all in another video bye-bye

[Music]