
The first use of the term “programming language”? - janvdberg
http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2019-12.html
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burakemir
The post is a speculation whether a January 1957 paper, "Programming the Logic
Theory Machine", by Newell and Shaw might be the first published use (or
"definition") of the term "programming language".

It is always interesting to look at beginnings and early signs of notions -
concepts - that we use in our everyday lives. The particular phrasing, I don't
know if that should matter so much.

Chomsky's work on formal languages falls roughly in that epoch of 50s, ALGOL
and COBOL, too.

"Computing" wasn't what it is today, I think mathematical and electrical
engineering background of the computing experts would affect what language
(pun intended) they used. The idea (and term) of "languages" stayed but what
makes a term popular is hard to settle.

I think in terms of concept, formal (mathematical) logic predates all this by
a few decades. The subtitle of Frege's 1879 "Begriffsschrift" was "Eine der
arithmetischen nachgebildete Formelsprache des reinen Denkens" which I would
render as "A formula language of pure thought, modeled after the arithmetical
one". I think the roots are rather there...

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DarthGhandi
> It is always interesting to look at beginnings and early signs of notions -
> concepts - that we use in our everyday lives.

To add one in here: Cipher Block Chaining was invented in 1976. Blockchain is
now common parlance.

~~~
kortilla
Despite both having the word block and chain, they aren’t really related. CBC
mode is not even requisite to implement a block chain.

~~~
pdpi
Merkle Trees are from 1979 and _those_ are one of the core concepts for most
blockchain implementations (a Blockchain proper is, technically, just a merkle
tree with a branching factor of 1).

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svat
See also the paper by Knuth and his student Luis Trabb Pardo, "The Early
Development of Programming Languages" (1976) -- its long story _ends_ in 1957,
the year this speculation is about. There's a typewritten version available
online (e.g. at [http://bitsavers.trailing-
edge.com/pdf/stanford/cs_techRepor...](http://bitsavers.trailing-
edge.com/pdf/stanford/cs_techReports/STAN-
CS-76-562_EarlyDevelPgmgLang_Aug76.pdf)) (TeX didn't exist yet), but a nicely
typeset (and slightly updated) version occupies pages 1 to 93 of Knuth's
_Selected Papers on Computer Languages_ (the fifth volume of Knuth's collected
papers).

The many programming languages/systems described in that article go by various
names like "automatic coding" and whatnot. For example, Burks in 1950 used
"intermediate program language" (as something above the "internal program
language"). (The PDF linked above actually uses "intermediate programming
language" but the more recent printed book uses "intermediate program
language" so that's probably correct.)

I confess I haven't properly read the Knuth and Trabb-Pardo article yet...
maybe there's a historical mention of the actual term "programming language"
in there somewhere.

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BobMackay
The notion of "Programming" was mentioned and even defined in 1947 by Donald
Booth. See
[http://bobmackay.com/Booth/Booth.html](http://bobmackay.com/Booth/Booth.html)
Principles and Progress in the Construction of High-Speed Digital Computers.

"The word 'programme' as used in this context may require explanation. Before
a problem is ready for solution in a computing machine it must first be broken
up into processes which the machine is capable of performing. Thus, as
mentioned above, when using a digital machine the continuous process of
differentiation must be replaced by a finite difference formula. This
translating of a problem in terms of the available functions of the machine is
generally known as programming."

However he did not use the word "language" as only assembler was known at the
time, and he was the first to use even that.

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BuckRogers
In a formal paper, the author is likely correct but the term almost certainly
back much further colloquially.

Fun to see a post on HN from UNI, my alma mater. I attended a few schools and
it was by far my favorite! Ranked second[0] in the best public non-research
universities in the midwest too.

[0][https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/regional-
unive...](https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/regional-universities-
midwest/top-public)

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bra4you
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plankalk%C3%BCl](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plankalk%C3%BCl)

~~~
wanderingstan
Even in German, appears the term was closer to "formal system", not
"programming language".

"Kalkül is the German term for a formal system—as in Hilbert-Kalkül, the
original name for the Hilbert-style deduction system—so Plankalkül refers to a
formal system for planning.[2]"

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1wd
Kalkül is calculus. (E.g. Lambda-Kalkül)

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guerrilla
A calculus is a formal system.

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barrister
A quick search on Google books for the term "programming language" with the
date confined to between 1945-1956 (although you may find more earlier) does
turn up multiple results.

~~~
svat
Every single one of them seems to be a case of Google Books misunderstanding
the date of a publication -- in some cases, because several volumes have been
bound together into a single physical book, and Google Books is showing the
earliest date as that of the volume.

