Programming Languages: History and Future
📜 Abstract
This paper discusses both the history and future of programming languages (= higher level languages). Some of the difficulties in writing such a history are indicated. A key part of the paper is a tree showing the chronological development of languages and their interrelationships. Reasons for the proliferation of languages are given. The major languages are listed with the reasons for their importance. A section on chronology indicates the happenings of the significant previous time periods and the major topics of 1972. Key concepts other than specific languages are discussed.
✨ Summary
The paper is an early systematic history of programming languages that combines chronology, language genealogy, usage, conceptual innovation, and forecasts about future language design. Its historical chart and discussion of language proliferation have continued to be cited in later surveys and research concerning programming-language history and evolution. For example, a later quantitative study of programming-language evolution cites the paper as a historical source, and subsequent bibliographies of programming-language history include it among foundational works. (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
The paper also helped establish a historical framing that distinguishes practical adoption from technical novelty, a distinction echoed in later accounts of programming-language development. The available sources document scholarly and bibliographic reuse; they do not establish a specific direct industry implementation attributable to this paper. (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)