CSC302 2011S, Class 26: An Abbreviated History of Programming Languages

Overview:
* Exercise: Dating key ideas.
* An abbreviated history of programming languages.

Admin:
* Sorry about neglecting to get a reading to you.
* Updates from Kington talk.
* Reading 1 for Friday: The Story of Mel, a real programmer
* Reading 2 for Friday: "The impact of software engineering research on modern progamming languages"
* No Piazzza necessary!
* I'll reserve a few minutes at the start of class for questions on the exam.
* EC for today's Escher talk.
* EC for tomorrow's CS extra by DG and RC.
* EC for Friday's CS table on Watson.

Some important concepts in the history of programming languages.
* When were they first conceived of?
* When were they first implemented?
* It's okay to get it wrong.  I just want estimates.

Concepts
+ Computational devices
  - Conceived of: Long time ago (x2)
  - Implemented:  Long time ago (x2), E.g., rocks (No!) abacus
  More than just a record keeping device?
  - Mechanical devices for astronomy - BCE
+ The general-purpose computer
  - Conceived of: 1940's, 1920's, 1800's
    Charles Babbage Differential Engine then Analytical Engine
  - Implemented:  Early 1950's, Late 1940's
    ENIAC, ABC, Harvard Mark I, Cambridge ...
+ Punch cards
  - Conceived of: 1850's
    Late 1700's: The jacquard loom
  - Implemented:  1960's
     Used for 1890 census!
+ The programming language
  - Conceived of:
    Babbage engine: Lovelace's language (1800's)
    Turing machine: 1930's
    Lambda calculus: 1930's
    Plancalcul: 1940's in germany
  - Implemented: 
    FORTRAN: Design started 1954, finished 1957
+ The first implemented programming language
  - Conceived of:
  - Implemented: 
+ Hypertext
  - Conceived of: "As We May Think", 1945, Atlantic Monthly, Vannevar Bush
  - Implemented: 

Paradigms
+ Imperative programming
  - Conceived of: 1954
  - Implemented:  1957
  [Algol early 1960's]
+ Functional programming
  - Conceived of: 1930's: Lambda Calculus; 1950's: LISP
  - Implemented: 1950's: LISP
+ Object-oriented programming
  - Conceived of: 
  - Implemented: Simula-67 (guess)
                 Smalltalk-80 (late 1970's) - Xerox PARC
+ Logic programming
  - Conceived of:
  - Implemented: Prolog 1972
+ Parallel programming
  - Conceived of: 1930's
  - Implemented: 

Design Issues
+ Dynamic memory
  - Conceived of:
  - Implemented: 
+ Garbage collection (automatic memory management)
  - Conceived of:
  - Implemented: 
+ Symbolic processing
  - Conceived of:
  - Implemented: 
+ Exceptions
  - Conceived of:
  - Implemented: 
+ Iterators
  - Conceived of:
  - Implemented: 
+ GUI languages
  - Conceived of:
  - Implemented: