research-article

Programming Languages The First 25 Years

Author:

P. WegnerAuthors Info & Claims

IEEE Transactions on Computers, Volume 25, Issue 12

Pages 1207 - 1225

https://doi.org/10.1109/TC.1976.1674589

Published: 01 December 1976 Publication History

Abstract

The programming language field is certainly one of the most important subfields of computer science. It is rich in concepts, theories, and practical developments. The present paper attempts to trace the 25 year development of programming languages by means of a sequence of 30 milestones (languages and concepts) listed in more or less historical order. The first 13 milestones (M1-M13) are largely concerned with specific programming languages of the 1950's and 1960's such as Fortran, Algol 60, Cobol, Lisp, and Snobol 4. The next ten milestones (M14-M23) relate to concepts and theories in the programming language field such as formal language theory, language definition, program verification, semantics and abstraction. The remaining milestones (M24-M30) relate to the software engineering methodology of the 1970's and include a discussion of structured programming and the life cycle concept. This discussion of programming language development is far from complete and there are both practical developments such as special purpose languages and theoretical topics such as the lambda calculus which are not adequately covered. However, it is hoped that the discussion covers the principal concepts and languages in a reasonably nontrivial way and that it captures the sense of excitement and the enormous variety of activity that was characteristic of the programming language field during its first 25 years.

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Cited By

Sammet J(1991)Some Approaches to, and Illustrations of, Programming Language HistoryIEEE Annals of the History of Computing10.1109/MAHC.1991.1000113:1(33-50)Online publication date: 1-Jan-1991
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/MAHC.1991.10001
Grudin J(1990)The computer reaches out: the historical continuity of interface designProceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/97243.97284(261-268)Online publication date: 1-Mar-1990
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/97243.97284
Shemer I(1987)Systems analysisCommunications of the ACM10.1145/214762.21476830:6(506-512)Online publication date: 1-Jun-1987
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/214762.214768
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Programming Languages The First 25 Years
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software creation and management
    1. Software development process management
  2. Software notations and tools
    1. General programming languages
      1. Language types
2. Theory of computation
  1. Semantics and reasoning

Index terms have been assigned to the content through auto-classification.

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cover image IEEE Transactions on Computers

IEEE Transactions on Computers Volume 25, Issue 12

December 1976

178 pages

ISSN:0018-9340

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Copyright © 1976.

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IEEE Computer Society

United States

Publication History

Published: 01 December 1976

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Cited By

Sammet J(1991)Some Approaches to, and Illustrations of, Programming Language HistoryIEEE Annals of the History of Computing10.1109/MAHC.1991.1000113:1(33-50)Online publication date: 1-Jan-1991
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/MAHC.1991.10001
Grudin J(1990)The computer reaches out: the historical continuity of interface designProceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/97243.97284(261-268)Online publication date: 1-Mar-1990
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/97243.97284
Shemer I(1987)Systems analysisCommunications of the ACM10.1145/214762.21476830:6(506-512)Online publication date: 1-Jun-1987
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/214762.214768
Nygaard KDahl O(1978)The development of the SIMULA languagesACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/960118.80839113:8(245-272)Online publication date: 1-Aug-1978
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/960118.808391
Buckles BKetchel JKriloff HBurner HCrockett PHerriot RHouston GKitto C(1977)Formal module level specificationsProceedings of the 1977 annual conference10.1145/800179.810194(138-144)Online publication date: 1-Jan-1977
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/800179.810194

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