Professional & Continuing Studies

Be part of the history of coding

We help you master .NET/C# or Java — one skill set at a time. Not everyone can reserve three or more months for nonstop training, so UD PCS, in conjunction with The Software Guild, offers Coding Bootcamp Badges. Our coding bootcamps put you on a fast track to being part of the history of computer programming.

very lengthy history of computer programming infographic

The History of Computer Programming (transcript)

The history of coding is as complex as it is interesting.

Computer programming languages instruct computers what to do, but the way they do this differs and has changed significantly through the years.

Let’s look at the history of computer programming through languages.

1957: Fortran

Developer: John W. Backus [1]

https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/20/business/20backus.html

  • First widely used programming language
  • Before Fortran, instructing computers was laborious and difficult
  • Allows simple statements instead of complicated code
  • Still used today for calculations and simple commands

1958: Lisp

Developer: John McCarthy [2]

https://www.britannica.com/technology/LISP-computer-language

  • Popular language for coding artificial intelligence
  • Designed to be logical and mathematical

1972: C

Developer: Dennis Ritchie [3]

https://www.techopedia.com/the-history-of-the-c-programming-language/2/32996

  • Has many applications, including database and network device development
  • Still used today and inspired multiple programming languages
  • Influenced the development of C#, C++, Java and Objective-C

1990: Python

Developer: Guido Van Rossum [4]

https://www.javatpoint.com/python-history

  • A wide-reaching language used to build many things
  • In the last 12 months, 27% of developers picked up Python [5]

https://www.jetbrains.com/lp/devecosystem-2019/

 

1993: Ruby

Developer: Yukihiro Matsumoto [6]

https://www.sitepoint.com/history-ruby/

  • A huge part of the open source community
  • In 2001, the first English book on Ruby hit the market
  • Ruby enthusiasts continue to improve and advance the language

1994: PHP

Developer: Rasmus Lerdorf

  • Used for web development
  • Lerdorf designed PHP to track visits to his online resume [7]

https://www.php.net/manual/en/history.php.php

  • Has had many iterations throughout the years

1995: JavaScript

Developer: Brendan Eich

  • Used by 69.7% of professional developers [8]

https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2019#technology

  • JavaScript is supported by all modern web browsers and built-in interpreters [9]

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/interesting-facts-about-javascript/

1996: Java

Developers: The Green Team

  • The most popular primary programming language in 2019 [5]

https://www.jetbrains.com/lp/devecosystem-2019/

  • Originally for interactive televisions but suited for internet programming [4]

https://www.javatpoint.com/history-of-java

  • Has few implementation dependencies and is a general-purpose language

2000: C#

Developer: Anders Hejlsberg

  • A hybrid language of C and C++
  • Used by 31% of professional developers [8]

https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2019#technology

  • Part of Microsoft’s .NET initiative [10]

https://medium.com/sololearn/why-is-c-among-the-most-popular-programming-languages-in-the-world-ccf26824ffcb

Modern-Day Languages

New languages continue to be developed and gain popularity. A couple of popular ones include:

2011: Go

JetBrains named Go the most promising programming language

  • 13% of developers polled want to adopt Go [5]

https://www.jetbrains.com/lp/devecosystem-2019/

2013: Rust

Rust is the most loved programming language in 2019 [8]

https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2019#technology

The field of computer programming and coding continues to grow. The University of Delaware’s Division of Professional and Continuing Studies offers various 100% online coding bootcamps to kick off or bolster your programming career.

Sources

  1. nytimes.com
  2. britannica.com
  3. techopedia.com
  4. javapoint.com
  5. jetbrains.com
  6. sitepoint.com
  7. php.net
  8. insights.stackoverflow.com
  9. geeksforgeeks.org
  10. medium.com

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