paranoid@nstar.UUCP (Damian Gick) (03/16/90)
Does anyone know what the name of the first high-level language was? It was created in 1953 by J. H. Laning and Neil Zierler, two MIT scientists. It was developed for the Whirlwind computer, but was too incredibly slow for any actual use. (Also, by 'high-level language' I mean that it used PRINT statements, etc. and algebraic equations (i.e. a + b = c) ). Or did it not have a name? +------------------+------------------------------------------------+ | Damian Gick | " 'To the Workers of the world, I am sorry. ' | | paranoid@nstar | -- Karl Marx "| +------------------+ Seen on the side of an Esat German factory | +------------------------------------------------+
nick@lfcs.ed.ac.uk (Nick Rothwell) (03/16/90)
In article <BZD4F2w160w@nstar.UUCP>, paranoid@nstar (Damian Gick) writes: >Does anyone know what the name of the first high-level language was? The lambda-calculus? >| Damian Gick Nick. -- Nick Rothwell, Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science, Edinburgh. nick@lfcs.ed.ac.uk <Atlantic Ocean>!mcsun!ukc!lfcs!nick ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ A prop? ...or wings? A prop? ...or wings? A prop?
chris@wacsvax.OZ (mcdonald ) (03/18/90)
paranoid@nstar.UUCP (Damian Gick) writes: > >Does anyone know what the name of the first high-level language was? >It was created in 1953 by J. H. Laning and Neil Zierler, two MIT scientists. >It was developed for the Whirlwind computer, but was too incredibly slow for >any actual use. I'm afraid I can't find its name in any of my Whirlwind books (my guess from that is that it had no name as the books are very thorough). If you're reading from Stan Augarten then you should include Laning's quotes about the fact that their compiler brought Whirlwind to a crawl: "This was in the days when machine time was king and people time was worthless." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chris McDonald. Department of Computer Science, ACSnet: chris@wacsvax.cs.uwa.oz.au University of Western Australia, ARPA: $(ACSnet)@uunet.uu.net Mounts Bay Road, UUCP: ..!uunet!murtoa!wacsvax!chris Crawley, Western Australia, 6009. SDI: (31.97 +/-10% S, 115.81 +/-10% E) PHONE: ((+61) 09) 380 2533 FAX: ((+61) 09) 382 1688
alan@ipse4.uucp (Alan Wills) (03/21/90)
>From: paranoid@nstar.UUCP (Damian Gick) >Does anyone know what the name of the first high-level language was? >It was created in 1953 by J. H. Laning and Neil Zierler, two MIT scientists. >It was developed for the Whirlwind computer, but was too incredibly slow for >any actual use. Was this pre FORTRAN? (Which was 1953, and the group was led by Grace Hopper.) I understood it wasn't too inefficient, as they were anxious to ensure the idea couldn't be criticised on grounds of inefficiency. (Other interesting things that happened in 1953: DNA discovered; Hilary climbed Everest; Laurel & Hardy appeared on stage for the first time in the UK; Stalin died; the maser was invented; Queen Elizabeth II was crowned; I was born.) Alan Wills Alan Wills University of Manchester, UK +44-61-275 6135
martinr@cpqhou.UUCP (Martin Richek) (03/21/90)
In article <1106@m1.cs.man.ac.uk>, alan@ipse4.uucp (Alan Wills) writes: > Was this pre FORTRAN? (Which was 1953, and the group was led by Grace Hopper.) Please note: The group led by Grace Hopper created COBOL.
jnixon@andrew.ATL.GE.COM (John F Nixon) (03/21/90)
alan@ipse4.uucp (Alan Wills) writes: >>From: paranoid@nstar.UUCP (Damian Gick) >>Does anyone know what the name of the first high-level language was? >Was this pre FORTRAN? (Which was 1953, and the group was led by Grace Hopper.) Grace Hopper's contribution was COBOL, not FORTRAN. The FORTRAN group was led by John Backus. FORTRAN was almost certainly the first *popular* high level language developed. Here are some excerpts (without permission) from "Principles of Programming Languages: Design, Evaluation, and Implementation" by Bruce J. MacLennan: ... An elegant algebraic language developed by Laning and Zierler of MIT was compiling code as early as 1952, but it was largely ignored. ... In the 1950s Grace Murray Hopper, another pioneer language developer, organized a number of symposia under the auspices of the Office of Naval Research (ONR). ... [at the May 1954 symposium, Backus was] given a copy of the report describing the Laning and Zierler system, which was demonstrated for them in June 1954. By November 1954 Backus and three associates had produced a preliminary external specification for "the IBM FORmula TRANslating System, FORTRAN." At a 1978 conference on the history of programming languages Backus stated, "As far as we were aware, we simply made up the language as we went along. We did not regard language design as a difficult problem... " FORTRAN was officially released in April 1957. FORTRAN II was proposed in September 1957!! Unfortunatly, I don't have a handy pointer to the dates for COBOL, nor any other information on the Laning and Zierler language. -- ---- jnixon@atl.ge.com ...steinmetz!atl.decnet!jnxion