Researched
Programming Languages
FORTRAN (1957), LISP (1958) and later Unix and C make computers programmable without machine code: software becomes an industry.
Open in the interactive tree →John Backus’s FORTRAN automatically translated mathematical formulas into machine instructions, and COBOL (1959) did the same for administration. McCarthy’s LISP became the language of early AI research. With Unix (1969) and C (1972) came the toolbox on which operating systems, the internet and nearly all of today’s AI systems run.
Prerequisites
- Algorithm (Euclid)~300 BC
- Programmable Computer1941
- Stored-Program Architecture1945Programming languages need a computer that holds programs as data
- Formal Grammars (Chomsky)1956Programming-language syntax is specified by grammars from Chomsky's hierarchy
Unlocks
More in Electronics & Computing · Atomic & Space Age
- Microwave Oven1945
- Stored-Program Architecture1945
- Transistor1947
- Photolithography for Chips1955
- Hard Disk Drive1956
- Integrated Circuit1958-1959
- MOSFET and CMOS chips1959
- Planar Process1959