Research

When the first computers were developed, programming meant working with ones and zeros or even panels of switches. Programming languages like C++ did not develop overnight. A series of developments lead to the types of advanced programming languages we use today.

Before 1900 People have been using mechanical devices to aid calculation for thousands of years. For example, the abacus probably existed in Babylonia (present-day Iraq) about 3000 B.C.E. The ancient Greeks developed some very sophisticated analog computers. In 1901, an ancient Greek shipwreck was discovered off the island of Antikythera. Inside was a salt-encrusted device (now called the Antikythera mechanism) that consisted of rusted metal gears and pointers. When this c. 80 B.C.E. device was reconstructed, it produced a mechanism for predicting the motions of the stars and planets. (More Antikythera info here.)

Introduction During World War II, Germany used two distinct categories of machine to encrypt messages prior to radio transmission. The first, Enigma, resembled a typewriter and was in very widespread use. The second, the so-called FISH machines, resembled teleprinters and were used only for the highest grade communications, usually between Berlin and the headquarters of various Army Groups.

Origins Pascal grew out of ALGOL, a programming language intended for scientific computing. Meeting in Zurich, an international committee designed ALGOL as a platform-independent language. This gave them comparatively free rein in the features they could design into ALGOL, but also made it more difficult to write compilers for it. Those were the days when many computers lacked hardware features that we now take for granted. The lack of compilers on many platforms, combined with its lack of pointers and many basic data types such as characters, led to ALGOL not being widely accepted. Scientists and engineers flocked to FORTRAN, a programming language which was available on many platforms. ALGOL mostly faded away except as a language for describing algorithms.

The idea that people could use computers to amplify thought and communication, as tools for intellectual work and social activity, was not an invention of the mainstream computer industry or orthodox computer science, nor even homebrew computerists; their work was rooted in older, equally eccentric, equally visionary, work. You can't really guess where mind-amplifying technology is going unless you understand where it came from. - HLR

In 1939 John V. Atanasoff (1903-1995) and graduate student Clifford Berry of Iowa State College built an analog mechanical computer for solving linear equations.

After the invention of the modern day computer, people realized the fast progress in technology and other fields. Today, computer is like a necessity for the society. If it is a simple grocery store or a college, usage of computers make the work very easy and fast. When Papyrus was used on a basis of a simple method to help people in recording language and numbers, the invention of the abacus took place; it helped people for counting numbers and also created eagerness amongst them to formulate something new and advanced. Years after years, many famous personalities showed their interest and contributed some or the other mechanisms which all together built the computer that we use today.

There are many individuals who have probably never heard of the Commodore home computers and are unaware of their incredible legacy and the tremendous impact which they have had upon the evolution of computers. Some of the younger generation who are too young to remember the 1980's may still not have seen or heard much-- if anything-- about Commodore computers and likely have very little sense of their significance. Likewise, many of the middle aged and older generation who did not develop an interest in computers until recently may be equally uninformed. However, most individuals who were involved in the home computer and electronics fields during the 1980's are probably somewhat familiar or quite familiar with the Commodore products and their history.

Although the development of digital computers is rooted in the abacus and early mechanical calculating devices, Charles Babbage is credited with the design of the first modern computer, the “analytical engine,” during the 1830s. American scientist Vannevar Bush built a mechanically operated device, called a differential analyzer, in 1930; it was the first general-purpose analog computer. John Atanassoff constructed the first semielectronic digital computing device in 1939.

The 12-bit PDP-8 was the first successful commercial minicomputer, produced by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in the 1960s. DEC introduced it on 22 March 1965, and sold more than 50,000 systems, the most of any computer up to that date.[1] It was the first widely sold computer in the DEC PDP series of computers (the PDP-5 was not originally intended to be a general-purpose computer). The chief engineer who designed the initial version of the PDP-8 was Edson de Castro, who later founded Data General.