World's First Computer Programming _Language_ ??

Question

OK -- a bit of an undefined question (is the pattern of plugs in an Eniac plugboard a language ??) but contenders include:

• Konrad Zuse's PlanKalkül (1940s) - never implemented (generally accepted as the first).
• Whatever Ada Lovelace (1840s) programmed in (not Ada) -- if she is the first programmer, as everyone says, she must have used the first programming language, no? Again probably never implemented - but did Babbage have anything that could be called a language?
• Turing's description of his Turing machine (1936 paper). In the paper he actually writes programs and simulates their execution mathematically - that makes it as good as (and earlier than) PlanKalkül in my book.

• Autocode for the Machester Mark 1 computer (1952) -- compiled, high level, beats Fortan to the punch (?). Mr Turing again (!).

• Fortran (Early 1950's) - beats out Lisp by a couple of years and undoubtedly passes the sniff test. But was it earlier than Mark 1 autocode ??

Tnx - Alanl

Answer 1

I would say that the first programming language actually used was the machine language of the first stored program computer, which I believe was Baby: http://www.computer50.org/

Answer 2

I think we need to agree on a definition of "programming language" to answer this question in any useful way. Is directly manipulating machine code a programming language?

Answer 3

The PBS series Connections made the argument that the holes punched in tiles to control the patterns created on looms (circa 1700s??) were the first programming "language".

These were followed by player piano scrolls: Codes, on paper, which are read by, and control the operation of a machine. That's a programming language, isn't it?

Answer 4

Since Ada Lovelace is widely regarded as the first programmer, I'd investigate what she called the set of symbols she was using.

Update: You can read the notation that Lovelace used in her Notes on Sketch of The Analytical Engine Invented by Charles Babbage By L. F. MENABREA. Lovelace was the translator, but her notes describing the programming of the Analytical Engine ended up being about four times longer than the original publication.

Answer 5

Konrad Zuse's PlanKalkül (1940s) - never implemented

There was actually an implementation of the language published by Rojas et al. somewhere around the year 2000.

Answer 6

DNA -- or does it have to involve silicon computers? ;-)

Answer 7

The language the analytical engine would have used was its own machine code, entered via punch cards indicating the operation to be performed and the columns (effectively registers) to perform it to. See these notes for some details.

Answer 8

Programming, at least in the declarative sense, comes down to combinations of sequence, alternation, and repetition. One might consider recipe authors as programmers, and therefore very early ones. Think about a recipe: it contains sequence (slice this, then chop that, then heat so and so...), alternation (if you want it moist then bake for 40 minutes, else if you want it "cakey" bake for 55 minutes), and repetition (while not stiff kneed the dough, repeat stirring until the batter is smooth). Recipes go back thousands of years.

Answer 9

DNA -- or does it have to involve silicon computers? ;-)

Well, if you go down that road then the correct answer has to be RNA which existed before DNA. But then, do we have a Blind Programmer? ;-)

Answer 10

Assuming a definition of "programming language" as "a textual notation used to describe/control the intended behavior of a digital computer", I think there's only one possible answer: raw (numerical) machine code.

Many of the other answers (e.g. recipes for cooking) are clever, but aren't about programming per se, but about description/control in a different context or more general sense.

Answer 11

In the beginning there was Ada Lovelace , Then Bill said 'Let there be C#' And there was light !!