The Evolution of Programming Languages: From Fortran to Python
Programming languages have been evolving for over six decades since the first programming language was created. They have been going through constant transformation and development to make them more user-friendly, efficient, and powerful. This article will take a look at the evolution of programming languages from the first language, Fortran, to the most popular language of today, Python.
Fortran
Fortran (Formula Translation) was developed in the 1950s by IBM for scientific and engineering calculations. It was the first high-level programming language that allowed programmers to write programs using English-like commands instead of machine language. Fortran paved the way for scientific and engineering software, and it became the dominant language in these fields.
COBOL
COBOL (Common Business Oriented Language) was developed in the late 1950s for business applications. COBOL was designed to be easy to read and write for non-technical people, and it was widely used in financial and administrative systems.
BASIC
BASIC (Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) was developed in the mid-1960s by John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz at Dartmouth College. BASIC was designed to be easy to learn and use, and it was widely used for educational purposes. It was also one of the first languages to be used in personal computers.
Pascal
Pascal was developed in the early 1970s by Niklaus Wirth as a language for teaching programming. Pascal was designed to be a simpler, more structured language than its predecessors, and it was widely used in academic settings.
C
C was developed in the early 1970s by Dennis Ritchie at Bell Labs. C was designed to be a low-level language that could be used to write system software, and it became one of the most popular languages for system programming.
C++
C++ was developed in the 1980s by Bjarne Stroustrup as an extension of the C language. C++ added object-oriented features to C, making it easier to write complex programs. C++ became popular for developing large-scale software systems.
Java
Java was developed in the mid-1990s by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems. Java was designed to be a platform-independent language that could be used to write programs that could run on any computer or operating system. Java became one of the most popular languages for web and enterprise development.
Python
Python was developed in the late 1980s by Guido van Rossum. Python was designed to be a high-level, interpreted language that could be used for scripting and automation. Python has gained popularity in recent years because of its ease of use, readability, and versatility. It is used for web development, scientific computing, data analysis, artificial intelligence, and more.
Conclusion Programming languages have come a long way since Fortran was introduced in the 1950s. Each language has its own strengths and weaknesses, and they have been developed to meet the changing needs of the computing industry. While some languages have fallen out of favor, others have gained popularity and become the languages of choice for specific tasks. Python, with its simplicity, readability, and versatility, is the most popular language of today, and it will be interesting to see how it will evolve in the coming years.
