paulgraham.com/icad.html).
LANGUAGE DESIGN
Computer programming languages are developed to make it easier for humans to direct computation.
At some times in the past it was thought that a single language could be best for all programming tasks.
For instance, IBM planned to ???unify??? scientific and business programming in the 1960s with PL1, replacing
both FORTRAN and Cobol. In the 1980s there was talk of Pascal replacing all other languages because of its
superior type checking and block structure.
As time has passed, however, more languages, not fewer, have come into use, and new ones still appear.
We think this is due to the maturing of the programming discipline. Just as any able mechanic will carry several
different tools for working with a 10 mm nut (open-end wrench, box wrench, crows-foot wrench, shallow
socket, deep socket, etc.), any able programmer will carry knowledge of several different languages so that they
can select the best one for a particular circumstance.
Some languages provide better run-time performance, some provide unusually compact syntax for quick
???one-off??? programs, some offer particularly strong features for manipulating text, some for working with matrices
of numbers, etc.
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