computer science

Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals

Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals rather than just read about it. In short: Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals is a book about programming languages written by Jean E. Sammet.

Key takeaways

Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals is a book about programming languages written by Jean E. Sammet. Published in 1969, the book gives an overview of the state of the art of programming in the late 1960s, and records the history of programming languages up to that time. The book was considered a standard work on programming languages by professionals in the field. According to Dag Spicer, senior curator of the Computer History Museum, Programming Languages "was, and remains, a classic."

Contents Programming Languages provides a history and description of 120 programming languages, with an extensive bibliography of reference works about each language and sample programs for many of them. The book outlines both the technical definition and usage of each language, as well as the historical, political, and economic context of each language. Because Sammet was deeply involved in the history of programming language creation in the United States, she was able to give an insider's perspective. The author excluded most programming languages used only outside the US, and excluded those she considered not to be high-level programming languages.

Languages The book covers both well-known and obscure programming languages. Among the 120 languages included in the book are:

ALGOL ALTRAN BASIC COBOL, co-created by Sammet herself COLINGO, from the mid-1960s, the name stands for Compile On-LINe and GO Culler-Fried FLOW-MATIC FORTRAN Klerer-May Laning and Zierler JOVIAL Lincoln Reckoner, an interactive, distributed mathematics program including matrix operations for the TX-2 computer MATHLAB Magic Paper, a symbolic mathematics system OMNITAB PL/1 Protosynthex, a query language for English text SIMULA SNOBOL

History Sammet pioneered the COBOL language while working at Sylvania and FORMAC (an extension of FORTRAN) while at IBM. While managing IBM's Boston Advanced Programming Department, Sammet began researching programming languages more widely and collecting documentation. Starting in 1967 she published annual reports in Computers and Automation, the first computer magazine, on the languages in use across the field of programming. Computers were new and rare in the 1960s, and were a subject of fascination that book publishers hoped to profit from. Prentice Hall approached Sammet asking her to write about FORTRAN. Sammet said that she would rather write about every programming language. Prentice Hall and IBM told her to go ahead. Sammet used her book to advocate for high-level languages at a time when assembly languages were popular and there was widespread doubt about the value of high-level languages in the field of programming. An image of the Tower of Babel was printed on the dust jacket of the book, with the names of various programming languages printed on the bricks making up the tower. A similar image had appeared on the January 1961 issue of the Communications of the ACM.

See also The Art of Computer Programming The Preparation of Programs for an Electronic Digital Computer The C Programming Language

References

External links Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals digital copy at Internet Archive

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals

In research: Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1969 non-fiction books, Computer programming books, Handbooks and manuals, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals in simple terms?

Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals is a book about programming languages written by Jean E. Sammet.

Why does Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals.