History of Computer Languages — Cool Infographics

Sep 24

Sep 24 History of Computer Languages

History of Computer Languages infographic

O'Reilly has created a poster showing the 50-year history of computer languages from 1954 to 2004, available as a PDF. They have also been giving away copies of the posters at O'Reilly conferences. I love the links shown where older languages split or combined to create the newer languages over time.

I look back around 1990 when I was programming in college and see Fortran V, C++ and the birth of Visual Basic. I remember having to convince my engineering professors to let me program assignments in C++ instead of Fortran.

The original diagram was created by Éric Lévénez. Although O'Reilly is not updating the poster, Eric is keeping his original diagram up to date on levenez.com.

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Randy Krum

Randy Krum is an infographics and data visualization designer, author of the book, “Cool Infographics: Effective Communication with Data Visualization and Design,” and instructor of Infographics and Data Visualization Design at Southern Methodist University's Continuing and Professional Education program (CAPE). Randy also runs the popular website, Coolinfographics.com. Started in 2007, the site has grown into one of the most influential infographic sites online, handling up to 50,000 unique visitors a day. He is the Founder and President of InfoNewt, his design company that designs infographics and visualizations for clients used for both online marketing and internal communications. Randy speaks at conferences, universities, corporate events, and government agencies about infographic design, data visualization methods, visual content marketing, and the effective use of visual information. Learn more at RandyKrum.com

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