The Evolution of Programming Languages: From Prolog to Java, Slides of Advanced Computer Programming

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The History Of

Programming Languages

 Prehistory of programming languages

• The story of the programmers of Babylon
• The story of Mohammed Al-Khorezmi
• The story of Augusta Ada, Countess of Lovelace

 Early programming languages

• The story of the Plankalkül
• The story of Fortran
• The story of Lisp
• The story of Algol
• The story of Smalltalk

 Our languages

• The story of Prolog
• The story of ML
• The story of Java

Babylonian Numbers

 The two Babylonian digits for “1” and “10”,

written together, signify a number base 60

 The exponent is not given; the reader must

figure it out from the context

Chapter Twenty-Four Modern Programming Languages, 2nd ed. 4

1 × 601 + 10 × 600 = 70

(^16) 1 × 600 + 10 × 60 −^1 = 1

1 × 60 i^ +^1 + 10 × 60^ i

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A Babylonian Program

 Written language to describe computational

procedures:

Chapter Twenty-Four Modern Programming Languages, 2nd ed. 5

A cistern. The length equals the height. A certain volume of dirt has been excavated. The cross-sectional area plus this volume comes to 1,10. The length is 30. What is the width? You should multiply the length, 30, by …

Translation by Donald Knuth

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 Prehistory of programming languages

• The story of the programmers of Babylon
• The story of Mohammed Al-Khorezmi
• The story of Augusta Ada, Countess of Lovelace

 Early programming languages

• The story of the Plankalkül
• The story of Fortran
• The story of Lisp
• The story of Algol
• The story of Smalltalk

 Our languages

• The story of Prolog
• The story of ML
• The story of Java

Baghdad

 Near ancient Babylon

 Founded around 762

 A great center of scholarship, art and poetry

 780-850: Mohammed Al-Khorezmi, a court

mathematician, lived and wrote

 Two little books…

Algorithms

 The original is lost

 Latin translation: Algorthmi de numero

Indorum

 Algorithms for computing with Hindu

numerals: base-10 positional system with 0

 A new technology (data structure and

algorithms)

 Strongly influenced medieval European

mathematics

Other Early Written Algorithms

 Euclid, 300 BC: an algorithm for

computing the GCD of two numbers

 Alexander de Villa Dei, 1220 AD: Canto de

Algorismo , algorithms in Latin verse

 Not programming languages: natural

language (even poetry) plus mathematics

Augusta Ada

 Daughter of George Gordon, Lord Byron

 Early 1800’s in England (as elsewhere)

women were generally denied education,

especially math and science

 Ada studied math with a private tutor (as an

antidote to feared Byronic tendencies)

 Married at 19 (Lady Lovelace), 3 children

Charles Babbage

 English mathematician

 Inventor of mechanical computers:

• Difference Engine, construction started but not

completed (until a 1991 reconstruction)

• Analytical Engine, never built

Chapter Twenty-Four Modern Programming Languages, 2nd ed. 14

I wish to God these calculations had been executed by steam!

Charles Babbage, 1821

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Sketch of the Analytical Engine

 A paper by Luigi Menabrea

 Published 1843

 Translated, with explanatory notes, by

A.A.L.

 Algorithms in a real programming

language: the machine language of punched

cards for the Analytical Engine

Not Just For Numbers

Chapter Twenty-Four Modern Programming Languages, 2nd ed. 17

The bounds of arithmetic were however outstepped the moment the idea of applying the cards had occurred; and the Analytical Engine does not occupy common ground with mere "calculating machines." … In enabling mechanism to combine together general symbols in successions of unlimited variety and extent, a uniting link is established between the operations of matter and the abstract mental processes of the most abstract branch of mathematical science. A.A.L.

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Konrad Zuse

 Built a mechanical computer in his parents’

living room in Berlin in 1936: the Z

 Metal strips and pins—very different from

Babbage’s wheelwork

 Programmable using punched tapes

 Binary floating point numbers with an

explicit exponent

Early Development

 More computers:

• Z2 experimented with relays for the ALU
• Z3: all-relay technology (the first electronic

programmable digital computer)

• Z4: envisioned as a commercial system

 Most designs and prototypes destroyed in

the war

 1945: Zuse flees Berlin with wife and Z