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How Programming Languages Got Their Names

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Re: How Programming Languages Got Their Names

#111

Post by kevindamm »

Y_Y wrote: post #15
p4bl0 wrote: post #9

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 rebrand…

I'm obliged to point out that C has the same value as C++.

Fitting 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.

Re: How Programming Languages Got Their Names

#112

Post by madcaptenor »

bluenose69 wrote: post #108
madcaptenor wrote: post #49

R: pirates Actually, there was an earlier language named S, for "statistics". R was intended as a successor to S - I suppose T would have been the natural name, then, or S++ - but also the inventors had first names starting with R. I've heard people speculate it has something to do with correlation coefficients, which it doesn't, but that r comes from "reversion" or "regression": https://stats.stackexchange.com/quest…

In their paper (1), the authors state that R is to relate to S, but also to, in their words, "part to celebrate our own efforts". (Note their first names!). It's a great paper, by the way. 1. Ihaka, Ross, and Robert Gentleman. “R: A Language for Data Analysis and Graphics.” Journal of Computational & Graphical Statistics 5, no. 3 (1996): 299–314.

I haven’t actually read it! I had assumed that they named it R and just left other people to notice that their names started with R, but no such false modesty for them.

Re: How Programming Languages Got Their Names

#113

Post by eterps »

zilti wrote: post #97
eterps wrote: post #25

Pascal: named after https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaise_Pascal Oberon: named after https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oberon_(moon) Ada: named after https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace Eiffel: named after https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Eiffel Sather: named afer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sather_Tower Nim: named after https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimrod Erlang (Ericsson language): named after https://en.…

To my knowledge, Oberon was named after Oberon, the king of elfs.

The information provided in the literature on Oberon contradicts this claim. Furthermore, the moon is depicted on the covers of some books about it.

Re: How Programming Languages Got Their Names

#114

Post by Turing_Machine »

tetha wrote: post #67
p4bl0 wrote: post #9

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 rebrand…

There 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.

Then there's the famous list of joke languages which includes C-, named after the grade its creator got in his compilers class. :-)

Re: How Programming Languages Got Their Names

#115

Post by hulitu »

p4bl0 wrote: post #9

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 rebrand…

> C++: increments over C.

Or, as UNIX haters put it: C++ is to C what lung cancer is to lung.

Re: How Programming Languages Got Their Names

#116

Post by dllthomas »

Y_Y wrote: post #15
p4bl0 wrote: post #9

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 rebrand…

I'm obliged to point out that C has the same value as C++.

It makes C larger, but returns the same value.

Re: How Programming Languages Got Their Names

#117

Post by hulitu »

zilti wrote: post #103
jhbadger wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is weird that Haskell (programming language) is named after Curry's first name though. That isn't generally how you name things (other than people). About the only other thing I think of that works that way is America, named after the explorer Amerigo Vespucci. "Vespuccia" would have been a more logical choice.

America was very likely not named after Amerigo Vespucci - as you stated correctly, naming something after someone's first name is unlikely. It seems very plausible that it is named after the Amerrique mountains.

> Amerrique mountains

Never heard about it

Re: How Programming Languages Got Their Names

#118

Post by zilti »

hulitu wrote: post #117
zilti wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

America was very likely not named after Amerigo Vespucci - as you stated correctly, naming something after someone's first name is unlikely. It seems very plausible that it is named after the Amerrique mountains.

> Amerrique mountains Never heard about it

Well, you're one of today's 10'000 then :)

Re: How Programming Languages Got Their Names

#119

Post by hgo »

richev wrote: post #17
hgo wrote: post #2

I can't shake a vague memory that Java was named in an early brainstorming session with post-it notes on walls with tons of good and bad names, where eventually Java remained as the winner. I believe I've heard about this as a prime example of good brain storming methods from the early days when it wasn't at all obvious. Does anybody know if this is right or if I'm confusing it with something else?

Wasn't this how AltaVista got its name, but as a whiteboard remnant rather than post-it notes?

Ah, maybe. Thanks

Re: How Programming Languages Got Their Names

#120

Post by madcaptenor »

eterps wrote: post #113
zilti wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To my knowledge, Oberon was named after Oberon, the king of elfs.

The information provided in the literature on Oberon contradicts this claim. Furthermore, the moon is depicted on the covers of some books about it.

Worth mentioning here that some moons of Uranus are named after Shakespeare characters - the moon is named after Shakespeare's depiction of Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
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