The Evolution of Programming Languages: Past, Present, and Future • Kevlin Henney • GOTO 2024

This presentation was recorded at GOTO Copenhagen 2024. #GOTOcon #GOTOcph
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Kevlin Henney - Consultant, Programmer, Keynote Speaker, Technologist, Trainer & Writer @KevlinHenney

RESOURCES
https://bsky.app/profile/kevlin.bsky.social
https://about.me/kevlin
https://twitter.com/KevlinHenney
https://linkedin.com/in/kevlin
https://instagram.com/kevlin.henney
https://kevlinhenney.medium.com

Links
https://www.cse.sc.edu/~mgv/csce330f14/Backus78.pdf
https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/359138.359140
https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index
https://spectrum.ieee.org/top-programming-languages-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/362929.362947
https://craftofcoding.wordpress.com/2021/03/05/superplan-groovy
https://github.com/e-n-f/if-then-else/blob/master/if-then-else.md
https://twobithistory.org/2019/01/31/simula.html
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/lambda-the-ultimatae-excel-worksheet-function

ABSTRACT
Programming languages are a halfway house between the metal and the mind, a bridge between the world of circuits and the world of applications, the engineered and the social. Programming languages are the medium through which developers codify systems and fragments.
In each programming language is embedded a philosophy (or many) of how to think about code, how to organise thoughts, how to design. Programming languages also define skillsets, ecosystems, jobs, loyalties and communities.

When we think of software and technology we often think in terms of progress and rapid change. Programming languages, however, typically move at a far slower pace. Mainstream languages are still embracing ideas that are decades old. Constructs that developers welcome as new to their language of choice are often older than the developers themselves. And over all this hangs the question, what of the future?
How will current trends, from FOSS to LLMs, shape programming languages and their use?

In this talk, we will take a tour of the past, present and future of programming languages. [...]

TIMECODES
00:00 Intro
02:42 Past, present & future
06:07 John Backus: Fortran
08:54 Robert W. Floyd: Paradigms
09:08 Prog. languages appear to be in trouble
10:10 Prog. language rankings
16:22 Top prog. languages 2024
17:22 Bjarne Stroustrup
17:45 Prog. languages chronologically ordered
21:27 Algol 68
24:16 Edsger Dijkstra
29:08 Subroutines
33:14 Block structure
38:14 FP languages
40:48 Pipelines
42:28 Lambdas
47:18 LISP & Machine Learning
51:55 Prog. language evolution
54:17 Java
55:06 Betterigde's law
55:36 Outro

Download slides and read the full abstract here:
https://gotocph.com/2024/sessions/3333

RECOMMENDED BOOKS
Kevlin Henney & Trisha Gee • 97 Things Every Java Programmer Should Know • https://amzn.to/3kiTwJJ
Kevlin Henney • 97 Things Every Programmer Should Know • https://amzn.to/2Yahf9U
Henney & Monson-Haefel • 97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know • https://amzn.to/3pZuHsQ
Henney, Buschmann & Schmidt • Pattern-Oriented Software Architecture Volume 5 • https://amzn.to/3GAPzN7
Edsger W. Dijkstra • A Discipline of Programming • https://amzn.to/3JlwHV6

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