4 ms·

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 "definit

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...

mLuby 7y ago
I'd expect Leibniz's language would count (except it wasn't completed) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Characteristica_universalis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Characteristica_universalis
macromagnon 7y ago
It would be interesting to get an account of the usage of the term programming through the development of linear optimization/programming and its usage during WW2, the simplex algorithm, etc, until the creation of fortran not a decade later. I wonder how dynamic programming fits into all this and when people started to investigate classic problems ala knapsack.
DarthGhandi 7y ago
> 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 7y ago
  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 7y ago
    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).

mLuby 7y ago

I'd expect Leibniz's language would count (except it wasn't completed) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Characteristica_universalis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Characteristica_universalis

macromagnon 7y ago

It would be interesting to get an account of the usage of the term programming through the development of linear optimization/programming and its usage during WW2, the simplex algorithm, etc, until the creation of fortran not a decade later. I wonder how dynamic programming fits into all this and when people started to investigate classic problems ala knapsack.

DarthGhandi 7y ago

> 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 7y ago
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 7y ago
  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).