[ Course Documents ] : [ Comparative Languages: Introduction ]

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Primary influences on language design

1. Computer architecture
• We use imperative languages, at least in part, because we use von Neumann machines

2. Programming methodologies
• 1950s and early 1960s: Simple applications; worry about machine efficiency
• Late 1960s: People efficiency became important; readability, better control structures
• Late 1970s: Data abstraction
• Middle 1980s: Object-oriented programming