An

Int el lig en t D es ign

Evolution of Programming
Languages

By Te rr y E va ns A ugu st
10 ,20 08
In the beginning

Early computers had no language. Communication was

one-way. The people who ran such systems gave the
computer commands by physically flipping switches,
or by using cables to connect circuits.

1+1=
uh…duh!
Deus ex machina

From the physical flipping of switches evolved the

first generation programming language known as
binary or machine language. The computer is still
not very bright. It can only communicate by using
ones and zeroes. No program is used, and they
still can’t talk to each other.

100101011 Huh?
00

Eve n wit h thi s Thi s pr obl em

new l ang ua ge, t he is ca ll ed
pro gr amm er ne ed s mac hi ne
to wr ite a ne w dep en de nce .
pro gr am fo r e ac h
typ e of co mpu te r.
It’s alive! It’s alive! (well…not really)
1940’s—1950’s

The second generation programming language was the

next evolutionary step and was called an Assembly
Language. Machine dependency was still a problem
,but instead of using 10010110011, assembly
language would use a statement like, “mov
$0x61,%al. Mov is shorthand for move and “al” is
the register to use. What the middle part is, I
have no idea. Computers still can’t communicate
with each other, but that’s all about change.

Is there
anybody out
there?
Resistance is futile 1957

Programming languages took an evolutionary leap in

1957 when Dr. Grace Murray Hopper developed a
computer program called a ‘compiler’. A compiler
could take a set of computer instructions written
in English and convert it into machine language.
This was the first compiler , known as A-0.
Programming languages that require the use of a
compiler are called Third Generation Languages
(3GLS) and the programmers do not have to know the
particulars of machine language or assembly
language to write programs. This evolutionary leap
would be the equivalent of us crawling out of the
sea, skipping the growth of a tail and leaping
right into having a big brain.
So simple a caveman can use it

With the Fourth Generation Programming Languages

(4GLS), our evolutionary tale is close to the end.
One of the 4GL’s is the structured query language,
better known as SQL. As long as the computer has
the underlying application package that processes
SQL commands, a person with little or no knowledge
of programming skills can write simple programs
such as SELECT * FROM STUDENT which will list all
of the files in a student’s database. Just because
we have reached the final programming language,
does not mean that programming languages are
through evolving. I believe the evolutionary
process is just beginning and will have many
surprises for us in the future.

1+4=er..
a…doH!
references

Ro ss, M .A . ( 20 05) . S of tw are t ech nol og ie s. In for ma ti on

Sys te ms Te chn ol ogy (pp . 7 9-8 2) . Pre nt ice Ha ll .