Shane Hathaway <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Torsten Bronger wrote: > Even if things don't turn out that way, note that each generation of > programming languages builds on its predecessors, and PyPy could help > bootstrap the next generation. Assemblers first had to be written in > machine code; when it was possible to write assemblers in assembly, > people started writing complex grammars and came up with C. C compilers > first had to be written in assembly; when it was possible to write C > compilers in C, people started inventing high level languages. Now > people are experimenting with high level compilers written in high level > languages. Where will this pattern lead? Who knows. :-)
Your history of programming languages skips so many steps that it's misleading. For instance, C didn't arrive ab initio. It was preceeded by B, which was a derivative of BCPL. From the history at <URL: http://www.cs.bell-labs.com/who/dmr/chist.html >, it seems that B slowly evolved into C. B started life as an interpreted language, with a compiler that generated pseudo-code. The first B compiler was written in TMG, which was a high-level language designed for creating compilers - well, sorta. Based in that history, it seems likely that the first program that compiled a language called C was written in B. I'm used to seeing the term "high level languages" used for languages a lot like C, to distinguish them from assembler. See <URL: http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/h/highll.htm > for one definition. "Very high level languages" used to be popular, but I haven't seen it used much. At least one person classifies Python as such <URL: http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=735359 >. In any case, powerful dynamic languages - of which python is an example - date back to LISP. The first LISP compiler in LISP almost certainly predates C. Basically, there's a *lot* of history in programming languages. I'd hate to see someone think that we went straight from assembler to C, or that people didn't understand the value of dynamic languages very early. <mike -- Mike Meyer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/ Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list