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Do You Remember Bob?
GdoL writes: "Do you remember Bob? Byte's editor starts his monthly column talking about Bob the OS Interface from Microsoft in the middle 1990s. And he didn't forget either Bob the programming language from a former technical editor of Dr. Dobbs Journal, David Betz. This OO language is widely use on 'DVD players and set-top boxes produced by the likes of Toshiba, Samsung, and Motorola.' Do you remember any other language long forgotten that is still used in the real world?"
The University of Toronto used to teach their Comp Sci students a language called Turing. I can't recall what the rationale was, but no doubt they believed it was well suited for teaching programming. I am not sure if it is still taught today.
I remember at the time (over 10 years ago) thinking this was the most ill-advised thing the department could have done. I thought it was absolutely pointless to teach kids a language that was not also in wide use outside the classroom - such as C. To this day, I have never seen any jobs for Turing programmers, and I laugh out loud every time I see a resume where the only language the applicant knows is Turing, which still happens.