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Kinda bored and want to do something brainless and computery so I'm just gonna look up programming etymologies for the next hour or so (thread)
Some I already know:
-Python was named after Monty Python
-C++ comes from the increment operator, ++, so it's like "C+1"
- C# is the same, as C♯ is one musical note higher than a C note. You write it with # and not ♯ because Keyboards
-Python was named after Monty Python
-C++ comes from the increment operator, ++, so it's like "C+1"
- C# is the same, as C♯ is one musical note higher than a C note. You write it with # and not ♯ because Keyboards
C was named as the successor to the "B" language, which was a condensed version of Basic CPL, which was a simplified version of the Combined Programming Language spec, which was a renaming of the Cambridge PL after ULondon joined with Cambridge
Lots of programming languages were named after people:
Ada: Ada Lovelace
Haskell: Haskell Curry
Erlang: Agner Erlang
Pascal: Blaise Pascal
Ada: Ada Lovelace
Haskell: Haskell Curry
Erlang: Agner Erlang
Pascal: Blaise Pascal
Java was supposed to be named "Oak" but that name was trademarked and they were drinking Java coffee that day https://www.infoworld.com/article/2077265/so-why-did-they-decide-to-call-it-java-.html
In Alan Kay's own words, "a language I now called "Smalltalk"—as in "programming should be a matter of ..."
http://worrydream.com/EarlyHistoryOfSmalltalk/
http://worrydream.com/EarlyHistoryOfSmalltalk/
Scheme was originally SCHEMER as a nod to PLANNER, Carl Hewitt's robotics language, as SCHEMER was first inspired by Hewitt's work on the actor model of computation
JavaScript was supposed to be called Livescript, but they renamed it to cash in on the popularity of Java. Sun was part of this marketing push, and Netscape and Sun intended to collaborate and integrate. This fell through for whatever reason https://web.archive.org/web/20070916144913/http://wp.netscape.com/newsref/pr/newsrelease67.html
> What is the origin of the name [Go]?
>
> “Ogle” would be a good name for a Go debugger.
https://web.archive.org/web/20130208081214/https://golang.org/doc/faq
>
> “Ogle” would be a good name for a Go debugger.
https://web.archive.org/web/20130208081214/https://golang.org/doc/faq
APL stands for "A Programming Language". Kenneth Iverson's next language was J because he loved terse names, K and Q are a riff on that. Dyalog is a pun on "Dialog"
Speaking of ML:
- SML is "Standard ML"
- Caml is a pun on the languages CAM and ML, and is short for "Categorical Abstract Machine Language"
Ocaml is "Object Caml"
- F# is "Microsoft had a phase where they named all their languages Letter#", which includes J#, P#, and Q#
- SML is "Standard ML"
- Caml is a pun on the languages CAM and ML, and is short for "Categorical Abstract Machine Language"
Ocaml is "Object Caml"
- F# is "Microsoft had a phase where they named all their languages Letter#", which includes J#, P#, and Q#
Early languages LOVED their acronyms.
- FORTRAN is "FORmula TRANslation".
- ALGOL is "ALGOrithm Language".
- COBOL is "COmmon Business-Oriented Language".
- BASIC is "Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code". https://twitter.com/crlane/status/1357497890688622600
- FORTRAN is "FORmula TRANslation".
- ALGOL is "ALGOrithm Language".
- COBOL is "COmmon Business-Oriented Language".
- BASIC is "Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code". https://twitter.com/crlane/status/1357497890688622600
And Perl was supposed to be "Pearl", but a language called "Pearl" already existed at the time https://twitter.com/scottyweeks/status/1357498355597930497
While we're on scripting languages, PHP meant "Personal Home Page", and Lua was inspired by the SOL language, which is "sun" in Portuguese. No guesses for what "Lua" means https://www.lua.org/doc/hopl.pdf
Bunch of reader contributions:
Rust: https://twitter.com/brendanzab/status/1357499617760350211
D: https://twitter.com/weskerfoot/status/1357499555735080963
Frink: https://twitter.com/Frinklang/status/1357499275530403841
R: https://twitter.com/Toshakins/status/1357498433695793152
Rust: https://twitter.com/brendanzab/status/1357499617760350211
D: https://twitter.com/weskerfoot/status/1357499555735080963
Frink: https://twitter.com/Frinklang/status/1357499275530403841
R: https://twitter.com/Toshakins/status/1357498433695793152
Not a programming language, but MySQL was named after Michael Widenius's daughter My. He named MariaDB after his other daughter
Sounds that way, but turns out it's real! The first BASIC manual gives the acronym: http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/dartmouth/BASIC_Oct64.pdf
Might still be a backronym, where they came up with BASIC and tried to fit it to something, but the acronym wasn't a retcon https://twitter.com/jckarter/status/1357500063061188611
Might still be a backronym, where they came up with BASIC and tried to fit it to something, but the acronym wasn't a retcon https://twitter.com/jckarter/status/1357500063061188611
