For questions about the history of programming and computing.
3
votes
2answers
366 views
Why is C so high in TIOBE index of popularity, while C++ is just under here too, but not as popular? [closed]
I can't get my head around this. If C is so much used, but C is not C++, can someone explain to me the most important reasons that makes C more used than C++ ? Where is all this C code written for ?
...
9
votes
4answers
931 views
In what programming language did “let” first appear?
I was wondering about the origins of the "let" used in Lisp, Clojure, and Haskell. Does anyone know which language it appeared in first?
2
votes
1answer
157 views
Why did Aiken decided to separate data and instructions in the Harvard Mark I?
When Aiken devised the Mark I, why did he decided to separate data and instructions? It was not mentioned in Wikipedia (or in any other searches I've looked) on how or why Aiken separated data and ...
2
votes
1answer
138 views
Is there genetic relationship between ARM and PDP-11 architectures?
Reading about ARM architecture I found many similarities to PDP-11 architecture which did not exist between ARM and x86.
For example,
General-purpose registers named Rx compared to AX, BX,... for ...
52
votes
8answers
24k views
Why did Alan Kay say, “The internet was so well done, but the web was by amateurs”?
Ok, so I paraphrased. The full quote:
The Internet was done so well that most people think of it as a natural resource like the Pacific Ocean, rather than something that was man-made. When was the ...
15
votes
2answers
718 views
Why is Java boolean primitive type name not 'bool'?
Java has
int and Integer
boolean and Boolean
This seems a bit inconsistent, why not either
bool vs Boolean to use an established shorter name for primitive type?
or
integer vs Integer to ...
2
votes
2answers
321 views
I need some help with defining a shell syntax
I'm trying to understand more about shells, I'm looking to implement one, and want to look at what's been done in the past.
In a regular shell, you have features like aliases and relative paths, and ...
7
votes
3answers
527 views
Why there are no compound assignment operators for logical operators (such as ||, && etc)?
According to ECMA-262, part 11.13, following is the exhaustive list of compound assignment operators: *= /= %= += -= <<= >>= >>>= &= ^= |=.
According to the part 11.11, var c ...
42
votes
4answers
15k views
Why do programming languages, especially C, use curly braces and not square ones? [closed]
The definition of "C-Style language" can practically be simplified down to "uses curly braces ({})." Why do we use that particular character (and why not something more reasonable, like [], which ...
18
votes
3answers
1k views
Why five dining philosophers?
I was wondering why the Dining philosophers problem is based on a five philosophers case. Why not four?
I guess that we can observe all unpleasant issues that can occur when discussing five ...
8
votes
3answers
596 views
Have there been disputes when software identifies genders with a boolean? [closed]
I remember that in our first programming class with Java, while explaining data types, the following occurred (kinda):
Professor: So, what data type would you choose if your program needs
to ...
4
votes
2answers
175 views
Who first coined the term Higher Order Function and/or First Class Citizen?
I've come to understand that long before Haskell, O'Caml or LISP, higher order functions were an academic research subject and in mathematics, Schönfinkel (in 1967) and Haskell Curry (in 1968) already ...
37
votes
2answers
2k views
IPv4 to IPv6. where is IPv5?
As all of us know that after IPv4 it came IPv6. How this transition happened?
I just want to know was there any IPv5 also? or there is any other logic in naming this version of IP as IPv6?
6
votes
1answer
277 views
When was source control invented?
I'm aware of many version control systems: CVS, SVN, TFS etc...
I've googled for the very first "revision control/version control system" and seen various conflicting answers.
When was source ...
-3
votes
2answers
573 views
Why aren't there modern C IDEs? [closed]
Why weren't the features present in modern IDEs for Java & C# (Intellij IDEA, Visual Studio, eclipse) developed in (earlier) IDEs for C language? I mean I don't know any IDE which has modern ...
11
votes
2answers
491 views
Where does the the term “feature creep” come from?
There is a decent Wikipedia article on the "Feature Creep", but it doesn't state an origin. A Google search only leads to some vague article claiming "Earl Rich" coined the term, but there isn't much ...
1
vote
3answers
788 views
How did Python become popular as a scripting language? [closed]
I looked at it in my field of work, which is film and pretty much every software we use comes with python as a scripting language: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Python_software That made me ...
20
votes
5answers
1k views
When did the standard for packaging Linux source code become .tar.gz?
When browsing open-source projects that are primarily developed for Linux systems and downloading the latest packages, the source code is always stored in a .tar.gz or .tar.bz2 file.
Is there any ...
0
votes
1answer
121 views
Did “Viaweb” work in the browser without JavaScript and somehow use only Lisp?
I just read Beating the Averages, and Mr. Graham writes that they had a significant advantage over competitors because they used Lisp.
From what I understand, Viaweb was a WYSIWYG editor that ran in ...
3
votes
5answers
2k views
Why was Objective-C popularity so sudden on TIOBE index?
I'd like to ask a question that is pretty similar to the one being asked here, but for Objective-C.
According to TIOBE rankings, the rise of popularity of Objective-C is unprecedented. This is ...
23
votes
4answers
1k views
What language was “standard” for Apple development before Objective C?
I don't think Objective C was in use from the beginning of Apple hardware development. What languages did app developers use for the earlier Apple computers, such as Apple II or Mac Classic?
80
votes
11answers
18k views
Why is the sudden increase in number of Git submitters on Debian popcon graph in 2010-01?
Almost every article I've read 1 comparing Git and Mercurial it seems like Mercurial has a better command line UX with each command being limited to one idea only (unlike say git checkout).
But at ...
4
votes
3answers
439 views
Where does the term “Front End” come from?
Where does the term "front-end" come from? Is there a particular presentation/talk/job-posting which is regarded as the first use of the term? Is someone credited with coining the term?
The ...
3
votes
0answers
164 views
Don Knuth and MMIXAL vs. Chuck Moore and Forth — Algorithms and Ideal Machines — was there cross-pollination / influence in their ideas / work? [closed]
Question:
To what extent is it known (or believed) that Chuck Moore and Don Knuth had influence on each other's thoughts on ideal machines, or their work on algorithms?
I'm interested in citations, ...
40
votes
4answers
2k views
Why is Java version 1.X referred to as Java X?
I saw that Java 1.2 is also known as Java 2. Do "Java 1.x" and "Java x" (for example "Java 1.6" and "Java 6") refer to the same version of Java?
And if yes, why the need for this duality?
2
votes
2answers
244 views
Why do different languages have different syntaxes? [closed]
It seems like if every language had the same core syntax but different semantics and features, new programmers or those learning a new language could focus on the theory and more abstract concepts of ...
2
votes
2answers
277 views
History of Associative Array?
In quite a lot of modern scripting languages (e.g. Perl, Python, Ruby, PHP, Lua, JavaScript), associative arrays are supported as a primitive or first-class data type (with various names like map, ...
10
votes
1answer
500 views
Why did object-oriented paradigms take so long to go mainstream?
I read this question and it got me thinking about another fairly recent thing. Object oriented languages. I'm not sure when the first one was created, but why did it take so long before they became ...
76
votes
14answers
14k views
What triggered the popularity of lambda functions in modern mainstream programming languages?
In the last few years anonymous functions (AKA lambda functions) have become a very popular language construct and almost every major / mainstream programming language has introduced them or is ...
40
votes
3answers
20k views
Is there any evidence that drugs can actually help programmers produce “better” code? [closed]
I just read this quote from Steve Jobs:
"Doing LSD was one of the two or three most important things I have done in my life."
Also a quote from that article:
He was hardly alone among computer ...
6
votes
1answer
359 views
Why is the code section called a text section?
The section of an executable that contains code is sometimes called the .text section. In segmented memory architectures, a segment mapped as code is sometimes called a text segment. The unix error ...
26
votes
9answers
2k views
Why didn't “cloud computing” offer appear earlier?
Cloud computing is a model of renting resources - servers and data storage. Both servers and data storage have been around for much more than a decade so far. Yet cloud computing offers only appeared ...
79
votes
2answers
4k views
What is JavaScript, really?
All this started when I was looking for a way to test my webpage for JavaScript conformance like the W3C HTML Validator. I have not found one yet. So let me know if you know of any...
I looked for ...
-1
votes
4answers
1k views
Why does Java have a “bad rap” [closed]
I hear a lot of people speak poorly of Java, especially the ones coming from C/C++. Is there a historical reason why? Is it because it used to be machines were too slow to run the JVM without lag?
16
votes
6answers
618 views
Why did the web win the space of remote applications and X not?
The X Window System is 25 years old, it had it's birthday yesterday (on the 15'th).
As you probably are aware of, one of it's most important features is the separation of the server side and the ...
1
vote
1answer
238 views
Which language came first with parallel assignment?
When I discovered that python has parallel assignment I thought is pretty cool.
Recently I discovered parallel assignment works also in ruby.
For people that don't know it: x,y = y,x in ruby, ...
0
votes
1answer
248 views
Where can I find a punched card simulator? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Learning to program on punchcards
I wasn't born in the era, but I'd like to experience writing a program with punch cards.
Does anyone know of a program or an online ...
0
votes
3answers
148 views
What was the first consumer-oriented hardware/software solution? [closed]
We all know the story of the personal computer as a consumer-oriented product. But I just thought that real end user solution should have appeared before that time. So a product that was probably ...
24
votes
2answers
1k views
Why was the percent sign (%) chosen as the format specifier for the printf family of functions?
Everyone knows that, at least in C, you use the printf family of functions to print a formatted string. And these functions use a percent sign (%) to indicate the beginning of a format specifier. For ...
33
votes
13answers
9k views
How have languages influenced CPU design?
We are often told that the hardware doesn't care what language a program is written in as it only sees the compiled binary code, however this is not the whole truth. For example, consider the humble ...
4
votes
3answers
339 views
What was the first server-side language [closed]
I was thinking about different server-side languages and this question immediately cropped up in my mind. What was the first server-side programming language using which websites were being created? ...
31
votes
8answers
2k views
Why a static main method in Java and C#, rather than a constructor?
Looking for a definitive answer from a primary or secondary source for why did (notably) Java and C# decide to have a static method as their entry point – rather than representing an application ...
12
votes
6answers
1k views
What came first, the compiler, or the source?
I'm curious about the birth of the compiler. How did programming begin? Did people first build hardware that recognized a certain set of commands, or did people define a language and then build ...
2
votes
1answer
226 views
Examples of “Lost art” on software technology/development [closed]
With the advent of a new technology, some old ideas - despite been good - are forgotten in the process.
I read a lot how some "new" thing was already present in Lisp like 60 years ago, but only ...
2
votes
3answers
533 views
C Flexible Arrays: When did they become part of the standard?
I learned to program in C many years ago, and used C steadily for about 10 years.
These days, I occasionally have to look at C code, because our Informix 4GL RDS customized runners also contain C ...
5
votes
1answer
213 views
What was the first commercial open-source software?
According to the Wikipedia article on open-source, the philosophy of sharing code has been used in projects since the early computer days (mostly through Universities sharing code). However, I'm ...
8
votes
2answers
217 views
Why has the accessor methods from the JavaBean specification become the standard for Java development?
The JavaBeans Specification describes a JavaBean as
A Java Bean is a reusable software component that can be manipulated visually
in a builder tool
Since the majority of the lines of code ...
12
votes
3answers
308 views
Historical origins of Scala implicits
Scala has been called complex with its rich feature set by many of my colleagues and some even blamed all those new features of it. While most programmers are aware of the OO-features, and at least ...
12
votes
3answers
702 views
Why is the “kill” command called so?
Why was it decided to call the kill command "kill"?
I mean, yes, this utility is often used to terminate processes, but it can actually be used to send any signal.
Isn't it slightly confusing? Maybe ...
9
votes
6answers
2k views
What does Jamie Zawinski's Law mean?
I need a proper explaination of Jamie Zawinski's Law of Software Envelopment:
Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail. Those programs which cannot so expand are replaced by ones ...
