All of This Has Happened Before, and It Will All Happen Again

Explore the historical development of programming languages in this 40-minute conference talk from Strange Loop. Trace the motivations and stories behind the creation of the first programming languages, starting from 1954 when computing was viewed as glorified adding machines. Learn about the emergence of "automatic coding" systems and early compilers, which led to the development of languages like FORTRAN, COBOL, LISP, and Algol. Discover how the fundamental goals of these early languages, such as speeding up application development, increasing code reuse, and simplifying debugging, remain largely unchanged in today's dramatically different computing landscape. Gain insights from primary sources including papers, conference proceedings, and contemporary books, and reflect on the lessons these historical computer languages offer to modern developers.