From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a timeline of historically important programming languages.
Legend
- ( Entry ) means a non-universal programming language
- * means a unique language (no direct predecessor)
Pre-1950
1950s
Year
|
Name
|
Chief developer, Company
|
Predecessor(s)
|
1950
|
Short Code
|
William F Schmidt, A.B. Tonik[1], J.R. Logan
|
Brief Code
|
1950
|
Birkbeck Assembler
|
Kathleen Booth
|
ARC
|
1951
|
Superplan
|
Heinz Rutishauser
|
Plankalkül
|
1951
|
ALGAE
|
Edward A Voorhees and Karl Balke
|
*
|
1951
|
Intermediate Programming Language
|
Arthur Burks
|
Short Code
|
1951
|
Regional Assembly Language
|
Maurice Wilkes
|
EDSAC
|
1951
|
Boehm unnamed coding system
|
Corrado Böhm
|
Aiken CPC system
|
1951
|
Klammerausdrücke
|
Konrad Zuse
|
Plankalkül
|
1951
|
OMNIBAC Symbolic Assembler
|
Charles Katz
|
Short Code
|
1951
|
Stanislaus (Notation)
|
Fritz Bauer
|
*
|
1951
|
Whirlwind assembler
|
Charles Adams and Jack Gilmore at MIT Project Whirlwind
|
EDSAC
|
1951
|
Rochester assembler
|
Nat Rochester
|
EDSAC
|
1951
|
Sort Merge Generator
|
Betty Holberton
|
*
|
1952
|
A-0
|
Grace Hopper
|
C-10 and Short Code
|
1952
|
Autocode
|
Alick Glennie after Alan Turing
|
Aiken CPC
|
1952
|
Editing Generator
|
Milly Koss
|
SORT/MERGE
|
1952
|
COMPOOL
|
RAND/SDC
|
*
|
1953
|
Speedcoding
|
John W. Backus
|
*
|
1953
|
READ/PRINT
|
Don Harroff, James Fishman, George Ryckman
|
*
|
1954
|
Laning and Zierler system
|
Laning, Zierler, Adams at MIT Project Whirlwind
|
*
|
1954
|
Mark I Autocode
|
Tony Brooker
|
Glennie Autocode
|
1954-1955
|
FORTRAN (concept)
|
Team led by John W. Backus at IBM
|
Speedcoding
|
1954
|
ARITH-MATIC
|
Team led by Grace Hopper at UNIVAC
|
A-0
|
1954
|
MATH-MATIC
|
Team led by Charles Katz
|
A-0
|
1954
|
MATRIX MATH
|
H G Kahrimanian
|
*
|
1954
|
IPL I (concept)
|
Allen Newell, Cliff Shaw, Herbert Simon
|
*
|
1955
|
FLOW-MATIC
|
Team led by Grace Hopper at UNIVAC
|
A-0
|
1955
|
BACAIC
|
M. Grems and R. Porter
|
|
1955
|
PACT I
|
SHARE
|
FORTRAN, A-2
|
1955-6
|
Sequentielle Formelübersetzung
|
Fritz Bauer and Karl Samelson
|
Boehm
|
1955-6
|
IT
|
Team led by Alan Perlis
|
Laning and Zerler
|
1955
|
PRINT
|
IBM
|
|
1958
|
IPL II (implementation)
|
Allen Newell, Cliff Shaw, Herbert Simon
|
IPL I
|
1956-1958
|
LISP (concept)
|
John McCarthy
|
IPL
|
1957
|
COMTRAN
|
Bob Bemer
|
FLOW-MATIC
|
1957
|
FORTRAN "I" (implementation)
|
John W. Backus at IBM
|
FORTRAN 0
|
1957-1958
|
UNICODE
|
Remington Rand UNIVAC
|
MATH-MATIC
|
1957
|
COMIT (concept)
|
|
*
|
1958
|
FORTRAN II
|
Team led by John W. Backus at IBM
|
FORTRAN I
|
1958
|
ALGOL 58 (IAL)
|
ACM/GAMM
|
FORTRAN, IT and Sequentielle Formelübersetzung
|
1958
|
IPL V
|
Allen Newell, Cliff Shaw, Herbert Simon
|
IPL II
|
1959
|
FACT
|
Fletcher R. Jones, Roy Nutt, Robert L. Patrick
|
*
|
1959
|
COBOL (concept)
|
The CODASYL Committee
|
FLOW-MATIC, COMTRAN, FACT
|
1959
|
JOVIAL
|
Jules Schwartz at SDC
|
ALGOL 58
|
1959
|
LISP (implementation)
|
John McCarthy
|
IPL
|
1959
|
TRAC (concept)
|
Mooers
|
|
Year
|
Name
|
Chief developer, Company
|
Predecessor(s)
|
1960s
Year
|
Name
|
Chief developer, Company
|
Predecessor(s)
|
1960
|
ALGOL 60
|
|
ALGOL 58
|
1960
|
COBOL 61 (implementation)
|
The CODASYL Committee
|
FLOW-MATIC, COMTRAN
|
1961
|
COMIT (implementation)
|
|
*
|
1962
|
FORTRAN IV
|
|
FORTRAN II
|
1962
|
APL (concept)
|
Iverson
|
*
|
1962
|
MAD
|
Arden, et al.
|
ALGOL 58
|
1962
|
SIMULA (concept)
|
|
ALGOL 60
|
1962
|
SNOBOL
|
Griswold, et al.
|
FORTRAN II, COMIT
|
1963
|
CPL
|
Barron, Strachey, et al.
|
ALGOL 60
|
1963
|
SNOBOL3
|
Griswold, et al.
|
SNOBOL
|
1963
|
ALGOL 68 (concept)
|
van Wijngaarden, et al.
|
ALGOL 60
|
1963
|
JOSS I
|
Cliff Shaw, RAND
|
ALGOL 58
|
1964
|
MIMIC
|
H. E. Petersen, et al.
|
MIDAS
|
1964
|
COWSEL
|
Burstall, Popplestone
|
CPL, LISP
|
1964
|
PL/I (concept)
|
IBM
|
ALGOL 60, COBOL, FORTRAN
|
1964
|
BASIC
|
Kemeny and Kurtz
|
FORTRAN II, JOSS
|
1964
|
IBM RPG
|
IBM
|
FARGO
|
1964
|
Mark-IV
|
Informatics
|
|
1964
|
Speakeasy-2
|
Stanley Cohen at Argonne National Laboratory
|
Speakeasy
|
1964
|
TRAC (implementation)
|
Mooers
|
|
1964?
|
IITRAN
|
|
|
1965
|
TELCOMP
|
BBN
|
JOSS
|
1966
|
JOSS II
|
Chuck Baker, RAND
|
JOSS I
|
1966
|
ALGOL W
|
Niklaus Wirth, C. A. R. Hoare
|
ALGOL 60
|
1966
|
FORTRAN 66
|
|
FORTRAN IV
|
1966
|
ISWIM (Concept)
|
Landin
|
LISP
|
1966
|
CORAL66
|
|
ALGOL 60
|
1967
|
BCPL
|
Richards
|
CPL
|
1967
|
MUMPS
|
Massachusetts General Hospital
|
FORTRAN, TELCOMP
|
1967
|
APL (implementation)
|
Iverson
|
*
|
1967
|
SIMULA 67 (implementation)
|
Dahl, Myhrhaug, Nygaard at Norsk Regnesentral
|
ALGOL 60
|
1967
|
InterLisp
|
D.G. Bobrow and D.L. Murphy
|
Lisp
|
1967
|
SNOBOL4
|
Griswold, et al.
|
SNOBOL3
|
1967
|
XPL
|
W. M. McKeeman, et al. at University of California Santa Cruz, California J. J. Horning, et al. at Stanford University
|
PL/I
|
1968
|
ALGOL 68 (UNESCO/IFIP standard)
|
A. van Wijngaarden, B.J. Mailloux, J.E.L. Peck and Cornelis H. A. Koster, et al.
|
ALGOL 60
|
1968
|
POP-1
|
Burstall, Popplestone
|
COWSEL
|
1968
|
DIBOL-8
|
DEC
|
DIBOL
|
1968
|
FORTH (concept)
|
Moore
|
|
1968
|
LOGO
|
Papert
|
LISP
|
1968
|
MAPPER
|
Unisys
|
CRT RPS
|
1968
|
REFAL (implementation)
|
Valentin Turchin
|
*
|
1969
|
PL/I (implementation)
|
IBM
|
ALGOL 60, COBOL, FORTRAN
|
1969
|
B
|
Ken Thompson, with contributions from Dennis Ritchie
|
BCPL
|
1969
|
PPL
|
Thomas A. Standish at Harvard University
|
|
1969
|
SETL
|
Jack Schwartz at Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences
|
|
1969
|
TUTOR
|
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
|
|
Year
|
Name
|
Chief developer, Company
|
Predecessor(s)
|
1970s
Year
|
Name
|
Chief developer, Company
|
Predecessor(s)
|
1970?
|
FORTH (implementation)
|
Moore
|
|
1970
|
POP-2
|
|
POP-1
|
1970
|
Pascal
|
Wirth, Jensen
|
ALGOL 60, ALGOL W
|
1971
|
Sue
|
Holt et al. at University of Toronto
|
Pascal, XPL
|
1972
|
Smalltalk
|
Xerox PARC
|
SIMULA 67
|
1972
|
PL/M
|
Kildall at Digital Research
|
PL/I, ALGOL, XPL
|
1972
|
C
|
Dennis Ritchie
|
B, BCPL, ALGOL 68
|
1972
|
INTERCAL
|
Don Woods and James M. Lyon
|
*
|
1972
|
Prolog
|
Colmerauer
|
2-level W-Grammar
|
1973
|
COMAL
|
Christensen, Løfstedt
|
Pascal, BASIC
|
1973
|
ML
|
Robin Milner
|
|
1973
|
LIS
|
Ichbiah et al. at CII Honeywell Bull
|
Pascal, Sue
|
1973
|
Speakeasy-3
|
Stanley Cohen, Steven Pieper at Argonne National Laboratory
|
Speakeasy-2
|
1974
|
GRASS
|
DeFanti
|
BASIC
|
1974
|
BASIC FOUR
|
MAI BASIC Four Inc.
|
Business BASIC
|
1975
|
ABC
|
Leo Geurts and Lambert Meertens
|
SETL
|
1975
|
Scheme
|
Sussman, Steele
|
LISP
|
1975
|
Altair BASIC
|
Gates, Allen
|
BASIC
|
1975
|
CS-4
|
Miller, Brosgol et al. at Intermetrics
|
ALGOL 68, BLISS, ECL, HAL
|
1975
|
Modula
|
Wirth
|
Pascal
|
1976
|
Smalltalk-76
|
Xerox PARC
|
Smalltalk-72
|
1976
|
Ratfor
|
Kernighan
|
C, FORTRAN
|
1976
|
S
|
John Chambers at Bell Labs
|
APL, PPL, Scheme
|
1977
|
FP
|
John Backus
|
*
|
1977
|
Bourne Shell (sh)
|
Bourne
|
*
|
1977
|
IDL
|
David Stern of Research Systems Inc
|
Fortran
|
1977
|
Standard MUMPS
|
|
MUMPS
|
1977
|
Icon (concept)
|
Griswold
|
SNOBOL
|
1977
|
Green
|
Ichbiah et al. at CII Honeywell Bull for US Dept of Defense
|
ALGOL 68, LIS
|
1977
|
Red
|
Brosgol et al. at Intermetrics for US Dept of Defense
|
ALGOL 68, CS-4
|
1977
|
Blue
|
Goodenough et al. at SofTech for US Dept of Defense
|
ALGOL 68,
|
1977
|
Yellow
|
Spitzen et al. at SRI International for US Dept of Defense
|
ALGOL 68,
|
1978?
|
MATLAB
|
Moler at the University of New Mexico
|
*
|
1978?
|
SMALL
|
Brownlee at the University of Auckland
|
Algol60
|
1978
|
SQL aka structured query language
|
IBM
|
Ingres
|
1978
|
VisiCalc
|
Bricklin, Frankston marketed by VisiCorp
|
*
|
1979
|
Modula-2
|
Wirth
|
Modula
|
1979
|
REXX
|
Cowlishaw
|
PL/I, BASIC, EXEC 2
|
1979
|
AWK
|
Aho, Weinberger, Kernighan
|
C, SNOBOL
|
1979
|
Icon (implementation)
|
Griswold
|
SNOBOL
|
1979
|
Vulcan dBase-II
|
Ratliff
|
*
|
Year
|
Name
|
Chief developer, Company
|
Predecessor(s)
|
1980s
Year
|
Name
|
Chief developer, Company
|
Predecessor(s)
|
1980
|
Ada MIL-STD-1815
|
Ichbiah at CII Honeywell Bull
|
Green
|
1980
|
C with classes
|
Stroustrup
|
C, SIMULA 67
|
1980-1981
|
CBASIC
|
Gordon Eubanks
|
BASIC, Compiler Systems, Digital Research
|
1982?
|
Speakeasy-IV
|
Stanley Cohen, et al. at Speakeasy Computing Corporation
|
Speakeasy-3
|
1982
|
Objective-C
|
Brad Cox
|
Smalltalk, C
|
1983
|
GW-BASIC
|
Microsoft
|
IBM BASICA
|
1983
|
Ada ANSI/MIL-STD-1815A
|
Ichbiah at Alsys
|
Green
|
1983
|
C++
|
Stroustrup
|
C with Classes
|
1983
|
True BASIC
|
Kemeny, Kurtz at Dartmouth College
|
BASIC
|
1983
|
occam
|
David May
|
EPL
|
1983?
|
ABAP
|
SAP AG
|
COBOL
|
1984?
|
Korn Shell (ksh)
|
David Korn
|
sh
|
1984
|
RPL
|
Hewlett-Packard
|
Forth, Lisp
|
1984
|
Standard ML
|
|
ML
|
1984
|
CLIPPER
|
Nantucket
|
dBase
|
1984
|
Common Lisp
|
Guy L. Steele, Jr. and many others
|
LISP
|
1984
|
Redcode
|
Alexander Dewdney and D.G. Jones
|
|
1985
|
Object Pascal
|
Apple Computer
|
Pascal
|
1985
|
PARADOX
|
Borland
|
dBase
|
1985
|
PostScript
|
Warnock
|
InterPress
|
1985
|
QuickBASIC
|
Microsoft
|
BASIC
|
1986
|
GFA BASIC
|
Frank Ostrowski
|
BASIC
|
1986
|
Miranda
|
David Turner at University of Kent
|
|
1986
|
LabVIEW
|
National Instruments
|
|
1986
|
Eiffel
|
Meyer
|
SIMULA 67
|
1986
|
Informix-4GL
|
Informix
|
|
1986
|
PROMAL
|
|
C
|
1986
|
CorVision
|
Cortex
|
INFORM
|
1987
|
Ada ISO 8652:1987
|
ANSI/MIL-STD-1815A unchanged
|
Ada 83
|
1987
|
Self (concept)
|
Sun Microsystems Inc.
|
Smalltalk
|
1987
|
occam 2
|
David May and INMOS
|
occam
|
1987
|
HyperTalk
|
Apple
|
*
|
1987
|
Perl
|
Wall
|
C, sed, awk, sh
|
1987
|
Oberon
|
Wirth
|
Modula-2
|
1987
|
Erlang
|
Joe Armstrong and others in Ericsson
|
Prolog
|
1987
|
Mathematica
|
Wolfram Research
|
*
|
1987
|
Turbo Basic
|
Robert 'Bob' Zale
|
BASIC/Z
|
1988
|
Octave
|
|
MATLAB
|
1988
|
Tcl
|
Ousterhout
|
Awk, Lisp
|
1988
|
STOS BASIC
|
François Lionet and Constantin Sotiropoulos
|
BASIC
|
1988
|
Object REXX
|
Simon C. Nash
|
REXX
|
1988
|
SPARK
|
Bernard A. Carré
|
Ada
|
1988
|
A+
|
Arthur Whitney
|
APL
|
1989
|
Turbo Pascal OOP
|
Hejlsberg at Borland
|
Turbo Pascal, Object Pascal
|
1989
|
Modula-3
|
Cardeli, et al. DEC and Olivetti
|
Modula-2
|
1989
|
PowerBASIC
|
Robert 'Bob' Zale
|
Turbo Basic
|
1989
|
VisSim
|
Peter Darnell, Visual Solutions
|
|
Year
|
Name
|
Chief developer, Company
|
Predecessor(s)
|
1990s
Year
|
Name
|
Chief developer, Company
|
Predecessor(s)
|
1990
|
AMOS BASIC
|
François Lionet and Constantin Sotiropoulos
|
STOS BASIC
|
1990
|
Object Oberon
|
H Mössenböck, J Templ, R Griesemer
|
Oberon
|
1990
|
J
|
Iverson, R. Hui at Iverson Software
|
APL, FP
|
1990
|
Haskell
|
|
Miranda
|
1990
|
EuLisp
|
|
Common Lisp, Scheme
|
1991
|
Oberon-2
|
Hanspeter Mössenböck, Wirth
|
Object Oberon
|
1991
|
Python
|
Van Rossum
|
ABC, ALGOL 68[2], Icon, Modula-3
|
1991
|
Oz
|
Gert Smolka and his students
|
Prolog
|
1991
|
Q
|
Albert Gräf
|
|
1991
|
Visual Basic
|
Alan Cooper, sold to Microsoft
|
QuickBASIC
|
1992
|
Borland Pascal
|
|
Turbo Pascal OOP
|
1992
|
Dylan
|
many people at Apple Computer
|
Common Lisp, Scheme
|
1993?
|
Z Shell (zsh)
|
|
ksh
|
1993?
|
Self (implementation)
|
Sun Microsystems Inc.
|
Smalltalk
|
1993
|
Brainfuck
|
Urban Müller
|
*
|
1993
|
FALSE
|
Wouter van Oortmerssen
|
Forth
|
1993
|
Revolution Transcript
|
|
HyperTalk
|
1993
|
AppleScript
|
Apple
|
HyperTalk
|
1993
|
K
|
Arthur Whitney
|
APL, Lisp
|
1993
|
Ruby
|
Yukihiro Matsumoto
|
Smalltalk, Perl
|
1993
|
Lua
|
Roberto Ierusalimschy et al. at Tecgraf, PUC-Rio
|
Lua
|
1993
|
ZPL
|
Chamberlain et al. at University of Washington
|
C
|
1993
|
NewtonScript
|
Walter Smith
|
Self, Dylan
|
1994
|
ANSI Common Lisp
|
|
Common Lisp
|
1994
|
PHP
|
Rasmus Lerdorf
|
Perl
|
1994
|
Pike
|
Fredrik Hübinette et al. at Linköping University
|
LPC, C, µLPC
|
1994
|
ANS Forth
|
Elizabeth Rather, et al.
|
Forth
|
1995
|
Ada 95
|
Simon Tucker Taft
|
Ada 83
|
1995
|
Borland Delphi
|
Anders Hejlsberg at Borland
|
Borland Pascal
|
1995
|
ColdFusion (CFML)
|
Allaire
|
|
1995
|
Java
|
James Gosling at Sun Microsystems
|
C, SIMULA67 OR C++, Smalltalk, Ada 83, Objective-C
|
1995
|
LiveScript
|
Brendan Eich at Netscape
|
Self, C
|
1995
|
MySQL
|
Michael Widenius and David Axmark
|
C, C++
|
1996
|
Curl
|
David Kranz, Steve Ward, Chris Terman at MIT
|
Lisp, C++, Tcl/Tk, TeX, HTML
|
1996
|
JavaScript
|
Brendan Eich at Netscape
|
LiveScript
|
1996
|
Perl Data Language (PDL)
|
Karl Glazebrook, Jarle Brinchmann, Tuomas Lukka, and Christian Soeller
|
APL, Perl
|
1996
|
R
|
Robert Gentleman and Ross Ihaka
|
S
|
1996
|
NetRexx
|
Cowlishaw
|
REXX
|
1996
|
Lasso
|
Blue World Communication
|
|
1997
|
Component Pascal
|
Oberon microsystems, Inc
|
Oberon-2
|
1997
|
E
|
Mark S. Miller
|
Joule, Original-E
|
1997
|
Pico
|
Free University of Brussels
|
Scheme
|
1997
|
Squeak Smalltalk
|
Alan Kay, et al. at Apple Computer
|
Smalltalk-80, Self
|
1997
|
ECMAScript
|
ECMA TC39-TG1
|
JavaScript
|
1997
|
F-Script
|
Philippe Mougin
|
Smalltalk, APL, Objective-C
|
1997
|
ISLISP
|
ISO Standard ISLISP
|
Common Lisp
|
1997
|
Tea
|
Jorge Nunes
|
Java, Scheme, Tcl
|
1997
|
REBOL
|
Carl Sassenrath, Rebol Technologies
|
Self, Forth, Lisp, Logo
|
1998
|
Standard C++
|
ANSI/ISO Standard C++
|
C++, Standard C
|
1998
|
Open Source Erlang
|
Ericsson
|
Erlang
|
1998
|
Pikt
|
Robert Osterlund (then at University of Chicago)
|
AWK, Perl, Unix shell
|
1999
|
XSLT (+ XPath)
|
W3C, James Clark
|
DSSSL
|
1999
|
Game Maker Language (GML)
|
Mark Overmars
|
Game Maker
|
Year
|
Name
|
Chief developer, Company
|
Predecessor(s)
|
2000s
Year
|
Name
|
Chief developer, Company
|
Predecessor(s)
|
2000
|
Join Java
|
G Stewart von Itzstein
|
Java
|
2000
|
Joy
|
von Thun
|
FP, Forth
|
2000
|
D
|
Walter Bright at Digital Mars
|
C, C++, C#, Java
|
2000
|
XL
|
Christophe de Dinechin
|
Ada, C++, Lisp
|
2000
|
C#
|
Anders Hejlsberg at Microsoft (ECMA)
|
C, C++, Java, Delphi, Modula-2
|
2000
|
Ferite
|
Chris Ross
|
C, C++, Java, PHP, Python, Ruby, Scheme
|
2001
|
AspectJ
|
Xerox PARC
|
Java
|
2001
|
Visual Basic .NET
|
Microsoft
|
Visual Basic
|
2002
|
Io
|
Steve Dekorte
|
Self, NewtonScript
|
2003
|
Nemerle
|
University of Wrocław
|
C#, ML, MetaHaskell
|
2003
|
Factor
|
Slava Pestov
|
Joy, Forth, Lisp
|
2003
|
Scala
|
Martin Odersky
|
Smalltalk, Java, Haskell, Standard ML, OCaml
|
2003
|
Squirrel
|
Alberto Demichelis
|
Lua
|
2004
|
Subtext
|
Jonathan Edwards
|
*
|
2004
|
Boo
|
Rodrigo B. de Oliveira
|
Python, C#
|
2004
|
Groovy
|
James Strachan
|
Java
|
2005
|
F#
|
Don Syme at Microsoft Research
|
Objective Caml, C#, Haskell
|
2006
|
Links
|
Philip Wadler, University of Edinburgh
|
Haskell
|
2006
|
Kite
|
Mooneer Salem
|
*
|
2006
|
Windows PowerShell
|
Microsoft
|
C#, ksh, Perl, CL, DCL, SQL
|
2007
|
Ada 2005
|
|
Ada 95
|
2007
|
Fan
|
Brian Frank, Andy Frank
|
C#, Scala, Ruby, Erlang
|
2007
|
Vala
|
GNOME
|
C#
|
2007
|
Clojure
|
Rich Hickey
|
Lisp, ML, Haskell, Erlang
|
2007
|
Oberon-07
|
Wirth [1]
|
Oberon
|
2008
|
Nimrod
|
Andreas Rumpf
|
Lisp, Python, C
|
2009
|
Go
|
Google
|
C, Oberon, Limbo
|
Year
|
Name
|
Chief developer, Company
|
Predecessor(s)
|
See also
References
External links