Meiosis
Lab4
For this lab, you will edit this lecture on the history of programming languages. Don't worry, you are not going to be tested on this lecture, and the homework assignment at the end of the document does not apply to you. You only have to format this file by following the instructions listed in lab.
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History of Programming Languages
Brian McNamara
Today's lecture will be a quick history of programming languages. Since 1957 when the first Fortran was introduced for the IBM 704, literaly hundreds of new programming languages have come and gone--well, some of them have gone, and others--like Fortran, have managed to stay around. The sheer number of languages makes it impossible to cover them all in any depth--indeed, even the most important languages we will only have time to discuss in shallow detail today. As a result, we talk about only the most important languages--those that had historical significance either for their new ideas or their influences on the languages that followed them.
Let me admit, up front, that I am not a history buff. So why, you might ask, do we waste a day on a "history lecture" at all, then? Well, there are two major reasons. First, this lecture will give you a brief introduction to the handful of languages we'll talk about in this course. Thus the short exposure to these languages you get today will serve as the scaffolding onto which we'll learn about language constructs and the languages to which they belong. Second, I hope that in this discussion, especially of early languages, you'll gain an appreciation for the historical contexts in which languages have been developed. Things we take for granted today--like interactive machines, standard keyboards and characters sets, etc., were (of course) not always around, and it is interesting to see how issues that no longer matter today played important roles back then. By understanding the
For this lab, you will edit this lecture on the history of programming languages. Don't worry, you are not going to be tested on this lecture, and the homework assignment at the end of the document does not apply to you. You only have to format this file by following the instructions listed in lab.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
History of Programming Languages
Brian McNamara
Today's lecture will be a quick history of programming languages. Since 1957 when the first Fortran was introduced for the IBM 704, literaly hundreds of new programming languages have come and gone--well, some of them have gone, and others--like Fortran, have managed to stay around. The sheer number of languages makes it impossible to cover them all in any depth--indeed, even the most important languages we will only have time to discuss in shallow detail today. As a result, we talk about only the most important languages--those that had historical significance either for their new ideas or their influences on the languages that followed them.
Let me admit, up front, that I am not a history buff. So why, you might ask, do we waste a day on a "history lecture" at all, then? Well, there are two major reasons. First, this lecture will give you a brief introduction to the handful of languages we'll talk about in this course. Thus the short exposure to these languages you get today will serve as the scaffolding onto which we'll learn about language constructs and the languages to which they belong. Second, I hope that in this discussion, especially of early languages, you'll gain an appreciation for the historical contexts in which languages have been developed. Things we take for granted today--like interactive machines, standard keyboards and characters sets, etc., were (of course) not always around, and it is interesting to see how issues that no longer matter today played important roles back then. By understanding the