[ Course Documents ] : [ Programming LanguageHistory and Evolution ]

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1950's: Discovery and Description

• FORTRAN (54-57, and on and on):
  • First widely used compiled language
  • Relatively efficient

• LISP (56-62):
  • First functional language, first support for recursion, activation records, run-time stack, etc.
  • First garbage collector, implicit dynamic memory mgmt.
  • Interpreter-based

1950

1960

1970

1980

1990

2000

FORTRAN

LISP