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Languages, Levels, Libraries, and Longevity
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Volume 2 ,  Issue 9  (December/January 2004-2005) table of contents
Programming Languages
FEATURE: Q focus: Programming Languages table of contents
Pages: 32 - 38  
Year of Publication: 2004
ISSN:1542-7730
Author
John R. Mashey  Techviser
Publisher
ACM  New York, NY, USA
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ABSTRACT

New programming languages are born every day. Why do some succeed and some fail? In 50 years, weve already seen numerous programming systems come and (mostly) go, although some have remained a long time and will probably do so for: decades? centuries? millennia? The questions about language designs, levels of abstraction, libraries, and resulting longevity are numerous. Why do new languages arise? Why is it sometimes easier to write new software than to adapt old software that works? How many different levels of languages make sense? Why do some languages last in the face of "better" ones?


REFERENCES

Note: OCR errors may be found in this Reference List extracted from the full text article. ACM has opted to expose the complete List rather than only correct and linked references.

 
1
Vinge, V. 1999. A Deepness in the Sky. New York: Tor, 222-228.
 
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Wexelblat, R., ed. 1981. History of Programming Languages. New York: Academic Press. (Final proceedings of ACM SIGPLAN History of Programming Languages Conference, Los Angeles, CA, June 1-3, 1978.)
 
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Boggs, P., and J. Mashey. 1982. Cable Repair Administrative System. Bell System Technical Journal 61 (July-August), Part 2: 1275-1291.
 
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McIlroy, M.D. 1969. Mass-produced Software Components. In Software Engineering, ed. P. Naur and B. Randell. Garmisch, Germany: NATO Report (October 7-11).



REVIEW

"Manuel E. Bermudez : Reviewer"

Mashey speculates on the reasons for the success of some programming languages, and the failure of others. After some initial speculation about the role of "programmer archaeologists" in the distant future, he describes various levels of programmi  more...