7 ms·
This list is disappointingly short. Here's a few more of the top of my head, feel free to expand the list! : C: a successor to B, itself derived from BCPL. C
by p4bl0 3y ago
This list is disappointingly short.
Here's a few more of the top of my head, feel free to expand the list! :
C: a successor to B, itself derived from BCPL.
C++: increments over C.
D: a successor to C.
LISP: LISt Processor.
FORTRAN: FORmula TRANslator.
ALGOL: ALGorithmic Language.
Prolog: PROgrammation LOGique (logic programming in French).
PHP: initially PHP/FI for "Personal Home Page Form Interpreter", later rebranded as "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor".
JavaScript: named this way to be associated with the popularity of Java.
Ada: in honor of Ada Lovelace.
OCaml: initially Objective Caml, because it added OOP support among other things.
Caml: Categorical Abstract Machine Language.
ML (as in SML): Meta Language.
SQL: Structured Query Language.
- MikeShah 3y agoD was originally the 'Digital Mars Compiler'. Everyone around Walter Bright kept calling it D because it was a modern language with C-like syntax. Thus, D the next letter in the alphabet and eventually Walter gave in. :)
- BerislavLopac 3y agoThere is also C#, where # represents a duplication of "++", on top of each other. Technically, the # is not the sign for the musical sharp key (♯), but "C sharp" sounds better than "C hash", "C pound" or "C octothorp". :) Edit: On an unrelated note, TIL that the sign used on telephone keys is also not #, but ⌗ -- a.k.a. the "Viewdata square" [0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viewdata#Keypad_symbols:_the_sextile_and_the_square https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viewdata#Keypad_symbols:_the_s...
- Y_Y 3y agoI assumed they just meant to comment out everything that came after C.
- fluoridation 3y agoThen it would be called C// or C/*
- fhd2 3y agoAnd then there's F#, which _does_ play on musical notation. But I suppose F is also for "functional".
- zogrodea 3y agoThe F there is for System-F! According to Don Syme, although I don’t personally know what System-F is. https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/12/f_6_were_making_f/ https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/12/f_6_were_making_f/ Don Syme is a pretty cool guy from what I’ve seen online too. He enjoyed supporting and attending Migrateful (UK charity where refugees/asylum seekers teach cooking classes) which I’m appreciative of in particular.
- kevindamm 3y agoSystem F is a polymorphic lambda calculus, it's more theoretical than practical (typing must be explicit or type inference may be impossible) but a restriction of its typing scheme is one you may have heard of, and the Hindley-Milner type inference algorithm works for it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_F https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_F
- topaz0 3y ago# may not be the same glyph as musical sharp, but the language name was indeed intended to have a musical interpretation, according to the wikipedia.
- MisterTea 3y ago> Edit: On an unrelated note, TIL that the sign used on telephone keys is also not #, but ⌗ -- a.k.a. the "Viewdata square" [0]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_keypad#Layout https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_keypad#Layout "The key labeled was officially named the "star" key. The key labeled # is officially called the "number sign" key, but other names such as "pound", "hash", "hex", "octothorpe", "gate", "lattice", and "square", are common, depending on national or personal preference. The Greek symbols alpha and omega had been planned originally."
- Y_Y 3y agoI'm obliged to point out that C has the same value as C++.
- tromp 3y agoThere is in fact a higher valued ++C language: https://esolangs.org/wiki/%2B%2BC https://esolangs.org/wiki/%2B%2BC
- kevindamm 3y agoFitting with the whole point of C++ where the original design philosophy was to provide language features that you wouldn't have to pay for (in performance cost) if you didn't use them.
- dllthomas 3y agoIt makes C larger, but returns the same value.
- CrendKing 3y agoI think that list is limited to languages whose name comes from real life entities, and optionally with an interesting story behind. Names like "SQL" or "C" are more like pure knowledge rather nice good gossip.
- cygx 3y agoPerl: Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister (it's actually a reference to the Parable of the Pearl, but that name clashed with PEARL, a real-time programming language from the 70s developed in Germany)
- devjam 3y agoPractical Extraction and Reporting Language
- tromp 3y ago> D: a successor to C As expressed in Haskell: 'D' == succ 'C' As another example: "IBM" == map succ "HAL"
- tome 3y ago"WNT" == map succ "VMS"
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- lawgimenez 3y agoSwift named after the Swift bird?
- madcaptenor 3y agono, it's named after Taylor.
- fhd2 3y agoI suppose it's quite widely known where "JavaScript" comes from, but seeing it next to all the others and how they were named on the list, it seems like the... saddest etymology of them all.
- ambicapter 3y agoFitting, in my opinion.
- Angostura 3y agoBeginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code
- tmtvl 3y agoScheme: Gerald J. Sussman and Guy L. Steele were working on a followup to Conniver, which they called Schemer, but but the machine they were working with only allowed 6-character names.
- refset 3y agoAccording to Wikipedia: > The original name SEQUEL, which is widely regarded as a pun on QUEL, the query language of Ingres, was later changed to SQL (dropping the vowels) because "SEQUEL" was a trademark of the UK-based Hawker Siddeley Dynamics Engineering Limited company. The label SQL later became the acronym for Structured Query Language.
- treyd 3y agoI thought that name for Caml was a backronym. I thought it was for "Cambridge ML".
- BanazirGalbasi 3y agoLua: Portuguese for "moon", it was developed in Brazil as a successor to SOL (Simple Object Language) which also means "sun" in Portuguese.
- mysterydip 3y agoDidn't know that, thanks! Makes me like it more, for some reason.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- tetha 3y agoThere also is C--. C-- is a reduced kind of C to make implementation of compilers and interpreters for it easier. It is overall meant as a simple generation target for compilers.
- Turing_Machine 3y agoThen there's the famous list of joke languages which includes C-, named after the grade its creator got in his compilers class. :-)
- gmiller123456 3y agoThe Programming Language With No Pronouncable Acronym. Abreviated as INTERCAL, for obvious reasons.
- fluoridation 3y agoPLWNPA seems like it could be pronounced "ploompa" or something.
- LectronPusher 3y agoThis is also the reason behind the name XKCD
- demondemidi 3y agoCommon Business Oriented Language = COBOL Beginners All Purpose Symbolic Instructional Code = BASIC
- behnamoh 3y agoWolfram: Named after Stephen Wolfram, by Stephen Wolfram Does anyone else think it's a bit too much to name something after yourself? Even in math and physics, scientists often don't name it after themselves—their colleagues do it to give credit where it's due (e.g., Colomb's law, Planck's constant, etc.)
- behnamoh 3y agoClojure: closure [0] + Java [0]: To finally find closure with the old Lisps /jk Closure in Lisp has as different meaning. It's arguments that are waiting for their lambda.
- hulitu 3y ago> C++: increments over C. Or, as UNIX haters put it: C++ is to C what lung cancer is to lung.