What Are The Oldest Programming Languages That Are Still In Use?

A programming language allows people to communicate with computers. It consists of rules that convert string values into machine code or, for visual languages, graphical elements. Although unseen by most, programming languages power modern technology by giving instructions to computers and devices. Choosing the right language is vital in technology development.

Despite revolutionary development, many old programming languages remain relevant today. Currently, more than 4 million engineers/scientists use MATLAB including in such fields as automotive; aerospace; and biomedical. On the other hand, Fortran, which is one of the oldest programming languages, is used by approximately 58% of high-performance computing (HPC) applications especially where accurate simulations are required by the scientific and engineering field at a faster computational time. The developers continue to incorporate these older languages into their projects in 2024, due to the stability and problem-solving abilities of these languages. This article explores the oldest programming languages and their history:

What is a programming language?

A programming language is a structured language used to give a computer a series of instructions that generate different outputs. These languages are used to write programmes that manage how machines operate and represent algorithms. Typically, programming languages include commands that allow a computer to complete tasks like performing calculations or showing text on a display.

History of Programming Languages

The history of a programming language is actually very important now that we already know what a programming language is. Computer programming languages are said to have been developed in the mid of the twentieth century. Konrad Zuse produced the first high-level 1st programming language in the 1940s known as Plankalkül, but it was actualised in 2000. FORTRAN was the first practical language which was in fact developed by John Backus in the 1950s. Since then missions have emerged and progressed fast while programming languages stepped up to ever-changing requirements of current computing platforms.

Top 10 Oldest Languages in the World

We have listed the top 10 oldest programming languages chronologically that are still widely used in 2024 and worth learning:

Fortran (1957)

FORTRAN or Fortran is currently the oldest language still in use in the digital sphere of the world. Developed by a team at IBM with leader John W. Backus, it is an assembly language which was released in 1957 for computation mainframe computer systems. Fortran changed the way programmers worked and is still in use to this day primarily in scientific and engineering computation. 

Lisp (1958)

Lisp, designed by John McCarthy in 1958, is the second oldest high level language existing today. As one of the programming languages that is still used today for AI programming, Lisp came with new features such as tree data structures, and automatic storage management.

SQL (1974)

SQL or structured query language was developed in 1974 by Donald D. Chamberlin and Raymond F. Boyce at IBM. It is used today for analysing and managing relational databases. It is known for its role as the de facto way of accessing databases.

COBOL (1959)

COBOL, or Common Business Oriented Language was developed by the Conference on Data System Languages in 1959. It has found wide applications in business, finance, and government administrative systems and is still very essential in legacy systems in the three sectors.

Ada (1980s)

Ada, designed by Jean Ichbiah for the U.S. Department of Defence, was introduced in the early 1980s. It is a structured, object-oriented programming language used for large-scale systems, especially in defence and aviation. 

Smalltalk (1972)

Smalltalk, an early object-oriented language, was developed by Alan Kay’s team at Xerox PARC. Released commercially as Smalltalk-80, it played a significant role in educational programming and is still beloved for its simplicity in object-oriented programming.

BASIC (1964)

BASIC was developed in 1964 to make computer programming more accessible, particularly to non-scientific users. It revolutionised computing by allowing widespread public access to programming and was widely adopted in early home computers.

Pascal (1970)

Pascal, introduced by Niklaus Wirth in 1970, was designed to encourage structured programming and good coding practices. It became popular in educational settings and was widely used to teach programming fundamentals.

MATLAB (1984)

MATLAB, released by MathWorks in 1984, is used by millions for numerical computing. Initially a matrix calculator, it has evolved to include advanced features for data visualisation, user interfaces, and integration with other programming languages.

Summing Up

Every current technology relies on programming languages because they are the tools that allow humans to communicate with machines. Due to several important historical contributions and specialisations many of these oldest programming languages are still used and there are even new languages derived from them. Business languages such as Fortran and COBOL are still popular in the industries, and MATLAB is popular in the engineering and science disciplines. Their standing here indicates that these languages remain relevant today as they were, used in the effective solving of difficult issues and the development of technology. Learning about the history and development of programming languages is important in helping explain their relevance to present society’s dynamic world.

FAQs

What is the first programming language?

From 1941 until 1943 Konrad Zuse worked on what is considered one of the first programming languages for computers, the Plankalkül. It facilitated engineers to keep codes stored and so when it is used to do repeated tasks it can do so much more efficiently and faster.

Which of the following is the oldest programming language that is still actively used today?

Fortran is considered to be the oldest programming language that is used to the present day. It first appeared in the market in 1957 right up to now the version is extensively used especially in numerical analytical operations for science and engineering professions.

Who is the father of programming?

The popular title “Father of Programming” should more correctly belong to Ada Lovelace who penned the first algorithm aimed to be used by a machine in 1843. But, Charles Babbage is also credited with computing science as he designed the mechanical computer called the Analytical Engine on which Ada Lovelace wrote a programme. Altogether, they created the base for modern programming.

Why is C called the mother of all languages?

Well, C language is widely known as the “mother language” of today’s programmed languages. This is because most compilers, JVMs, kernels etc are coded in C while, many so-called languages like C++, Java and C# are using the syntax of C language.