Programming Language Concept History

General: Main page  Overview  Concept History  Alphabetical List
Timelines: Timeline #1  Timeline #2  Timeline #3
Languages: C/C++  Java  Visual Studio

Abstract data types	Simula 67
Assignment operator overloading	C++
BNF (Backus-Naur Form)	used to describe Algol 60's syntax
Block nesting with scope	Algol 60
Class	Simula 67
Closure	Lisp
Comments	Cobol
Compound statements (group statements into one)	Algol 58
Continuations	?? (1972)
Encapsulation
Exception handling	PL/I
Explicit typing	Algol 58
Garbage collection	Lisp
Heap allocation	Lisp
Higher order	Algol 60 or maybe Lisp?
Inheritance	Simula 67
Lazy evaluation	ISWIM (giving Haskell)
List comprehension	KRC (giving Haskell)
Macros	Cobol
Modules	Modula-2
Monads	Haskell
Operator overloading	Algol 68
Orthogonality	Algol 68
Pass by name	Algol 60
Pass by value	Fortran
Pass by value/result	Algol W
Pattern matching	Hope (giving ML)
Pointer datatype	PL/I
References	Algol 68
Separate compilation	Fortran II (interest: hardware failures were very frequent => length of a program could not exceed 300/400 lines)
Stack allocation	Algol 58
Stack dynamic variables	Algol 60
Static allocation	Fortran
Structures (records)	Cobol
Type classes	Haskell
Type inference	ML
User-defined data types	Algol 68
Using C as portable assembler	C++ (Cfront)
Variable declaration anywhere in a block	Algol 68
Vertical layout (Indentation to show block structure)	ISWIM (giving Haskell)
multiple selection (`case' statement)	Algol W

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Note: This page is modified from Programming Language Concept History.