Talk:Generational list of programming languages

Multiple inheritance

Why is C# listed as a derivative of C, but Java is not? The whole premise of this list, i.e. that languages form a simple tree is a bit suspect. 0xBAC 06:56, 1 Aug 2003 (UTC)

An interesting idea, but I agree a tree is suspect—I think you can so a tree of principal influences and pointers to other. But where is Smalltalk? Where is Prolog? RPL? If we have VBScript, why not Javascript. What about Perl, PHP. Isn't SQL a language, other 4GLs. What about shell scripts- TeX- assemblers?

There are languages that, arguably, are created specifically in an attempt to "merge" the outstanding characteristics of two other languages. J is a good example: if one didn't knew that APL was also created by Iverson, it would be hard to say whether J is influenced more by APL than Backus's FP/FL or viceversa. I ended up listing it under both and making a referential note. Sure enough, if this technique were to be missused , the Generational list would end up being a Generational mesh ;-) --Danakil

Indeed—the concept of multiple inheritance is rampant, here :-). Rexx, for example, has a strong syntactic resemblance to PL/I, with symbolic concepts adapted from BASIC and the PL/I macro processor, and many semantic aspects (few limits and system interfaces in particular) taken from EXEC 2. mfc

Err, maybe I'm reading something wrong, but shouldn't NGL be under J instead of K? Egregius

Worse: why is C# listed under C at all? There are trivial syntax differences between C# and Java, whereas there are major conceptual differences between C# and C. For example, C# is all-garbage collected; C is not, but Java is. C# compiles (normally) to a byte code; C does not, but Java does (generally). C# does not support RAII (because the 'finalizers' aren't called at any particular time); C does and Java does not.

While there is a resemblance to Java, C#'s reserved words and operators pretty much match C++. And, given Anders Hejlsberg's work in development of Turbo Pascal and Delphi, C# probably has as much cause to be in the ALGOL/Pascal/Modula tree as anywhere. Also, call it p-code or byte-code -- the concept and practice of virtual machines first saw widespread use in the 1970s in UCSD Pascal's p-system... Hejlsberg says in Deep Inside C#: An Interview with Microsoft Chief Architect Anders Hejlsberg that "In the design of C#, we looked at a lot of languages. We looked at C++, we looked at Java, at Modula 2, C, and we looked at Smalltalk. There are just so many languages that have the same core ideas that we're interested in, such as deep object-orientation, object-simplification, and so on." So, here's another vote for something other than a tree model. 209.98.143.77 20:07, 12 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I think the whole tree format is inherantly flawed for this information. It really needs a graph for multipule parents and cycles. C(99), for example, did take some inspirations from C++(98), which was inspired by C(89).

Things in real life are not always perfect representations of concepts. This list is great. It should be assumed that ideas spread.90.134.99.224 (talk) 14:01, 13 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Concurrent Turing

Hi, There is no such language as Concurrent Turing. Turing Plus is concurrent, but it has never been called Concurrent Turing.

Jim Cordy (co-author of the Turing, Turing Plus and Object-Oriented Turing languages)

Dialects of BASIC.

In the languages that have descended from the BASIC branch of the tree, some of the entries are just BASIC dialects (eg. QBasic) rather than BASIC-derived languages like COMAL. Should we prune this tree from the BASIC branch and instead start a generational list of BASIC dialects? Ae-a 04:57, 28 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I think the dialects are interesting. We should add more, such as Integer BASIC and Applesoft BASIC. Maybe there should be a way to denote that a language is a dialect.90.134.99.224 (talk) 13:58, 13 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Simula and ALGOL 60

Shouldn't Simula be listed under ALGOL 60? Kaldari 07:00, 8 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

isn't perl a derivitive of Pascal?

IO recantly read that perl was derivided from pascal (was derived from ALGOL) but here its listed as a from C? Oxinabox (talk) 01:28, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Visual Basic

Visual Basic is much more rememincient of C++, than of original BASIC. even in some syntax. It my have evolved from BASIC, folllowing Microsoft's quick basic, - visual basic 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 line. but by the time VB^ comes around it's been so heavily influenced by C++. DOn't know what should be done, Maybe a cross reference in the tree? Oxinabox (talk) 01:28, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

-based or -influenced

The list is organized by which language a given language was based upon. How about saying a given language was influenced by a language rather than based upon it?90.134.106.50 (talk) 15:17, 24 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Others

Is Scala missing? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.162.208.204 (talk) 23:36, 30 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]