The Surprisingly Profound Influence of 'Dead' Programming Languages
2025-07-16
This article explores the surprisingly significant impact of historically influential programming languages that are no longer widely used, such as COBOL, ALGOL, APL, and BASIC. By examining their backgrounds, contributions, and reasons for decline, the author reveals their lasting influence on modern languages. Examples include COBOL's record data structures, ALGOL's lexical scoping and structured programming, and APL's array processing. The article highlights the importance of studying programming language history and the often-overlooked contributions of languages that never achieved mainstream popularity.
Development
programming language evolution