Language History

The Languages That Tried to Kill C++ (And What Happened to Them)

The history of systems programming is, in part, a long procession of people standing up to announce that they had built a better C++.

They weren’t wrong. Many of them had built something better …

How 10 New Programming Languages Are Rewriting the Rules (And Why They Were Born)

Every programming language is, at its core, a written argument. An argument that the languages which came before failed at something important — something worth spending years of your life to fix. …

The Oldest Programming Languages Still in Production Use

Somewhere right now, a FORTRAN program written in the 1970s is predicting tomorrow’s weather. A COBOL system is processing your credit card transaction. A Lisp-based AI is helping plan a …