kinnersley@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (Bill Kinnersley) (01/10/91)
In article <3561@bruce.cs.monash.OZ.AU>, lloyd@bruce.cs.monash.OZ.AU (lloyd allison) writes: : : I have been attempting to compile an A-Z (not a census) : of programming languages for some time. : Well if it's names of obscure but widely used languages you want, take a look at the mumbo jumbo that Ada replaced. According to "An Overview of Ada" by J.G.P. Barnes, evaluations of existing languages included: FORTRAN, COBOL, PL/I, HAL/S, TACPOL, CMS-2, CS-4, SPL/1, J3B, J73, Algol 60, Algol 68, CORAL 66, Pascal, SIMULA 67, LIS, LTR, RTL/2, Euclid, PDL2, PEARL, MORAL and EL-1. -- --Bill Kinnersley
rssutor@broccoli.princeton.edu (Robert S. Sutor) (01/10/91)
Here are some more languages (from computer algebra).
Each has had hundreds if not thousands of users.
Scratchpad a general-purpose language originally written
for computer algebra at IBM Research in the
1980s. It features abstract parametrized datatypes,
multiple inheritance and polymorphism. Implementations
exist under VM/CMS and AIX. Authors include
Richard Jenks, Barry Trager, Stephen M. Watt and
Robert S. Sutor.
Maple the interpreted language for the Maple computer
algebra system developed at the University of
Waterloo (Canada) in the 1980s. Authors include
Gaston Gonnet, Keith Geddes, Stephen M. Watt and
Michael Monogan.
Mathematica the interpreted language for the Mathematica
computer algebra system developed by Wolfram
Research in the late 1980s.
Macsyma the language for the Macsyma computer algebra
system developed at MIT, Symbolics and others
in the 1970s and 1980s.
--
Robert S. Sutor
Department of Mathematics Mathematical Sciences Department
Princeton University IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
rssutor@math.princeton.edu sutor@yktvmz, sutor@ibm.com
--
Robert S. Sutor
Department of Mathematics Mathematical Sciences Department
Princeton University IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
rssutor@math.princeton.edu sutor@yktvmz, sutor@ibm.comtomr@ashtate (Tom Rombouts) (01/11/91)
In article <3561@bruce.cs.monash.OZ.AU> lloyd@bruce.cs.monash.OZ.AU (lloyd allison) writes: >re the variety of languages. > >I have been attempting to compile an A-Z (not a census) >of programming languages for some time. I, too, have started a list of languages! (Now we can have our own flame wars like those regarding the various "jargon" files :-) ) Many of the most obscure ones I got from the 1969 edtion of Sammet's "Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals" which includes a list in the back of c. 130, with many more mentioned in bibliographical references. My personal rules are: 1. The language must have been "published" (but not neccesarily implemented) 2. I personally _do_ include all variants, such as ALGOL-58, ALGOL-60, etc, but _not_ brand names such as "Watcom C," "Microsoft C," etc. 3. For now, I am not including assemblers since almost every CPU has an assembler(s) and that would tend to bloat the list with colorless names. Note also that coming up with some sort of precise total is _not_ a goal, since that will only lead to endless "What is a programming language?" debates. Eventually, I would like to create an alphabetical list with a explanation of the name, a one or two sentence description (including specific creators, if applicable), the year it first appeared, and some sort of official reference book or article on the language. (I am aware that some of these items are subject to [lengthy] debate....) I will add some more new ones to the list and post it as a single "paragraph" of language names seperated by commas to this group sometime next week. I am guessing there will be about 300. As someone e-mailed me, an article in CACM in 1966 (Vol 9, #3) suggested that back _then_ 700 languages had already been created! To paraphrase Ray Bradbury (?), "The Nine Billion Names for Languages" might apply to this project! :-) Tom Rombouts Torrance 'Tater tomr@ashtate.A-T.com V:(213)538-7108
rcd@ico.isc.com (Dick Dunn) (01/11/91)
kinnersley@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (Bill Kinnersley) writes: >...Well if it's names of obscure but widely used languages you want, take a > look at the mumbo jumbo that Ada replaced... ... > FORTRAN, COBOL, PL/I, HAL/S, TACPOL, CMS-2, CS-4, SPL/1, J3B, J73, > Algol 60, Algol 68, CORAL 66, Pascal, SIMULA 67, LIS, LTR, RTL/2, Euclid, > PDL2, PEARL, MORAL and EL-1. Eh? "replaced"? Perhaps "was intended to replace"? At least four of those languages still have larger bodies of existing code than Ada... though Kinnersley's list does tend to illustrate why DoD reacted as they did. -- Dick Dunn rcd@ico.isc.com -or- ico!rcd Boulder, CO (303)449-2870 ...Mr. Natural says, "Use the right tool for the job."
djones@megatest.UUCP (Dave Jones) (01/11/91)
From article <3561@bruce.cs.monash.OZ.AU>, by lloyd@bruce.cs.monash.OZ.AU (lloyd allison): > re the variety of languages. > > I have been attempting to compile an A-Z (not a census) > of programming languages for some time. ... Many of the names listed should be all caps, because the are acronyms. For example, "BASIC" stands for "Beginner's Algorithmic ..." something-or-another, can't remember. I think I recall that "FORTRAN" stands for "FORmula TRANslator". "Forth" is a funny one. I've heard that it does not stand for anything. Its inventor wanted to bill it as a fourth generation language, but he also had to restrict program names to five characters. He He. Urban myth? Pascal of course is "Pascal". It's a man's name, so it's not all caps. Ditto Ada, named after the first computer programmer, the lovely and talented Ada Lovelace.
subbarao@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Kartik Subbarao) (01/11/91)
In article <14834@goofy.megatest.UUCP> djones@megatest.UUCP (Dave Jones) writes: >From article <3561@bruce.cs.monash.OZ.AU>, by lloyd@bruce.cs.monash.OZ.AU (lloyd allison): >> re the variety of languages. >> >> I have been attempting to compile an A-Z (not a census) >> of programming languages for some time. ... > >Many of the names listed should be all caps, because the are >acronyms. For example, "BASIC" stands for "Beginner's Algorithmic ..." >something-or-another, can't remember. I think I recall that BASIC stands for Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. -- internet# ls -alR | grep *.c subbarao@{phoenix or gauguin}.Princeton.EDU -|Internet kartik@silvertone.Princeton.EDU (NeXT mail) -| SUBBARAO@PUCC.BITNET - Bitnet
karl@ima.isc.com (Karl Heuer) (01/11/91)
In <14834@goofy.megatest.UUCP> djones@megatest.UUCP (Dave Jones) writes: >Pascal of course is "Pascal". It's a man's name, so it's not all caps. Oh...then it *isn't* an acronym for Pasadena, California. :-)
ubiquity@cs.utexas.edu (Richard Hoffman) (01/12/91)
In article <230@platypus.uofs.edu> bill@platypus.uofs.edu (Bill Gunshannon) writes: >I didn't see JOVIAL in your list. Or has the Air Force seen past the >emperors new clothes??? JOVIAL is represented by two (slight) variants, differentiated by the names J3B and J73. J73 is the "modern" version. BTW, the story about JOVIAL standing for "Jules' Own Version of the International Algebraic Language", after language progenitor Jules Schwartz, is true, except that Schwartz did not select the name himself. His choice was "OVIAL" (O=our), but in the late '50s that was a pretty racy name. Back to the original thread: I didn't see FORMAC, a symbolic manipulation language that predates MACSYMA from the late '60s. -- Richard Hoffman IBM Entry Systems Division (512) 823-1822 1529 Ben Crenshaw Way Austin, TX 78746 "Life is a gamble at terrible odds; (512) 327-9232 if it were a bet you wouldn't take it" (Tom Stoppard)
multics@acm.rpi.edu (Richard Shetron) (01/12/91)
DYNAMO - this is is a differential equation language I used in 1974. I believe
it was developed at MIT, but all I really remember is its name and
it graphed on hardcopy devices systems described be differential eqns.
RETAM - this is a matrix manipulation language used in a freshman engineering
course at RPI back in 1972. I think it was written at RPI, but Its
been too long.
I could dig into my archives and try and find more information on eiather of
these if anyone is really interested.
--
A good bureaucracy is the best tool of oppression ever invented.
Richard Shetron USERFXLG@rpi.mts.edu multics@clotho.acm.rpi.edutchrist@convex.COM (Tom Christiansen) (01/13/91)
You missed awk and perl, which deserve separate entries if you're giving lisp and scheme separate entries. I guess ratfor and efl don't count if you won't count C++. --tom -- "Hey, did you hear Stallman has replaced /vmunix with /vmunix.el? Now he can finally have the whole O/S built-in to his editor like he always wanted!" --me (Tom Christiansen <tchrist@convex.com>)
efeustel@prime.com (Ed Feustel) (01/16/91)
I used IPL-V in 1965 to generate cryptograms while in an AI course at Princeton.It had several interesting concepts. The primary one was that Program was data and that you could operate on the program as if it were data. A secondary one was the concept of generators. The best embodiment of that in todays languages would appear to be in ICON with the concept of co-expressions.
vijayara@evax.arl.utexas.edu (01/26/91)
Dear netters, I am looking for information on a language called STRAND. I do not know anything else except for its name. Any help in this regard will be greatly appreciated. Thanks Vasu vijayara@evax.uta.edu