The History Of Computing, Or Some Of It
Jul 14

The History Of Computing, Or Some Of It

We found a gem poking around on the corporate network the other day: a PDF of “The History of Programming Languages”, a poster by O’Reilly that shows 50 programming languages and their timelines and interrelationships. Chris posted back in March about the progenitor of this chart, Éric Lévénez’s Computer Languages History, which is kept very up to date (it already has yesterday’s PHP 5.0 release).

A few interesting tidbits from the chart:


  • Ruby and Oak (Java’s predecessor) are among the biggest mutts in programming history, the former taking ideas from 5 languages, the latter from 6.

  • Noone has ever heavily borrowed ideas from COBOL since the sixties (and even then, only PL/I did).

  • BASIC emerged from Fortran and Algol160 (whatever that is).

Equally interesting are the graphs that show the giant UNIX history hairball, as well as the slightly more organized history of Windows.

If I can find a big enough wall, I’m going to send that history of UNIX diagram to the roll-fed plotter we use for UML hairballs.

by Joe   July 14, 2004 1:36 PM   |

Add Comment

Want to advertise on this site? Contact FM.
Laser Toner Cartridges UK laser toner, toner cartridges, hp toner, lexmark toner, samsung toner, canon, toner, epson toner, oki toner, kyocera toner, xerox toner, remanufactured toner, compatible toner
Direct TV Deals Free 4 room direct tv deals. no equipment to buy. free fast professional direct tv installation. this is the best direct tv deal available anywhere.
SEO Article Learn from the experts with our SEO article.
rope light Shopping with birddog distributing, inc., gives you access to the lowest prices, the best customer service and the quickest delivery times possible.
Laptop AC Adapter We offer genuine factory direct replacement AC adapters.
Direct TV Best satellite TV deals.
Direct TV Deals Direct TV programming deals are varied and include packages containing from 50 channels up to over 250 channels.
8mm film to DVD Retain family memories with the only frame by frame digital restoration service in the United States for your 8mm film to DVD today
Rubber Stamp Shop for custom self-inking stamps, hand stamps, address stamps, label stamps, check endorsement stamps, check deposit stamps, date stamps, pre inks, pocket stamps, ink and much more!