Assignment: Programming Languages History

Pick a language that you don't know much about---for example, find a language on the time line or off the shelf in the library in which you've never programmed or you're not sure what the purpose of the language is. Look up a few references about the language and learn about its basic history and features.

Write two or three paragraphs in which you describe such things as (you might not be able to find information about all of these, but see what you can dig up):

• The language's origin: when, by whom
• The language's purpose
• The languages, if any, from which this language was derived, and the langauges, if any, derived from that language
• How sucessful and/or long-lived the language was
• What language features the language either pioneered or popularized

Also, list what references you used.

Online references are fine, but you may not use Wikipedia as your sole source. However, I encourage you to look at a book. You can find old books on individual programming languages or programming languages in general around 001.6 and 005.13 in Buswell.