The Hundred-Year Language

dtolton writes "Paul Graham has a new article called "The Hundred-Year Language" posted. The article is about the programming languages of the future and what form they may take. He makes some interesting predictions about the rate of change we might expect in programming languages over the next 100 years. He also makes some persuasive points about the possible design and construction of those languages. The article is definitely worth a read for those interested in programming languages."

Comments

I know!

[`Sean]

JavaC++.Net#

Yeah...that's it...

Re:I know!

[joeblakethesnake]

that's VisualJavaC++.Net#

Re:I know!

[`Sean]

that's VisualJavaC++.Net#

That's what I was going to post, but I didn't want to give Microsoft any ideas!

Re:I know!

[Eric_Cartman_South_P]

that's VisualJavaC++.Net#

And of course, the first version out of the gate will be called:

VisualJavaC++.Net# v6.0 Premium

Seymour Cray said it best

[grub]

I do not know what the language of the year 2000 will look like, but it will be called FORTRAN. -Attributed to many people including Seymour Cray, John Backus

Re:Seymour Cray said it best

[syle]

"Real programmers can write FORTRAN in any language."

Re:Seymour Cray said it best

[ralico]

Is that like all restaurants are Taco Bell?

I predict...

[Jack William Bell]

I predict that in 100 years someone, somewhere, will still be running COBOL applications.

And I will still be refusing to maintain them. Six years in the COBOL mines was six years too long...

Re:I predict...

[$rtbl_this]

I predict that in 100 years someone, somewhere, will still be running COBOL applications.

And I will still be refusing to maintain them.

Surely that depends on whether you're damned or not. I imagine there's a whole circle of hell devoted to maintaining COBOL apps.

Cobol is back.

[sokkelih]

I guess that programming languages are like cycles. Ah, COBOL is all coming back to me. This object orientation is way too appreciated, it is time get back to the days when VAX-admins ruled the universe of COBOL :)

Re:Cobol is back.

[cyber_rigger]

I thought Cobol was already 100 years old.

Aliens

[GnuVince]

I liked the part about aliens:

Presumably many libraries will be for domains that don't even exist yet. If SETI@home works, for example, we'll need libraries for communicating with aliens. Unless of course they are sufficiently advanced that they already communicate in XML.

Let's hope it's not Microsoft's XML, because that could cause a problem with communication:they might say "We come in peace" and start shooting at us with lasers and everything!

No current languages will exist..

[SystematicPsycho]

When quantum computers come into the picture a new type of programming language and way we think about computers will emerge. Bit shifting will especially be different, it will be called... QBit shifting.

Re:No current languages will exist..

[Dethpickle]

Right.... What's a QBit?

The horror

[Chagatai]

If the children are our future, then they will be designing the future languages. This is horrible. Can you imagine the future code?

VIOD THING (OMFG!!!1 LOLOLOLOOL!!!)
INIT HAX0R N00B!!!
WHIEL STFU DO
GOTO 10
DOEN

Re:The horror

[Anonymous Coward]

I know. It'll be just be crazy. And you know what? That code will execute without errors and pop up an irc client.

Re:how long

[avandesande]

I hope it never is like spoken languages. I can hardly understand what my wife wants when I talk with her, why would a computer. Spoken languages are ambiguous.

Forth

[Anonymous Coward]

In the future, computers will be so smart that programmers will no longer have need to read their own code. Forth will finally take its rightful place as a primary language of development.

Quantum Packages?

[Anonymous Coward]

Imagine debugging a quantum package - it could exist and not exist at the same time. probably.

You'd get errors like :

error in com.quantum.package:453 - classProbablyNotFound exception

The computer language 100 years from now?

[Anonymous Coward]

That's easy! It will be Perl 6.

The optimization of Parrot should be just about complete by then.

Re:Best quote from the article

[SeanTobin]

What will perl look like in 100 years?

#/usr/bin/perl
#
# Hello_world.pl
#

use uberstrict;
use all_warnings;
use diagnostics_and_repair;
use linux::registry;

use language_id qw(language);
use DBI;

my $dbinfo=new linux::registry;
my $dbh = DBI->connect(
"DBI:"
. $dbinfo->{database}->{type} . ":"
. "hello_world"
. ";host="
. $dbinfo->{database}->{host} . ";",
$dbinfo->{database}->{username},
$dbinfo->{database}->{password}
)
or die "Severe configuration error: " . DBI->errstr;

my $lang_query=qqq(SELECT `translated_text` from `hello_world` where `language`=? LIMIT 1;);
my $query=$dbh->prepare($lang_query);
$query->execut e(&language);

$output=$query->fetchrow_array();

print $output[0];

exit or die "exit failed";

Re:how long

[KDan]

Yeah, but think of the potential:

"Computer! Make l33t website!"

Daniel

Re:Not long...

[Anonymous Coward]

The Department of Redundancy Department says:
ambiguity==humor, except where it does not.

Re:how long

[Waffle Iron]

However, I've never heard anyone say anything in English that sounds even remotely like:

dup over . rot + , swap if tuck else 42 then drop

Bah, did you not get the press release?

[Anonymous Coward]

VisualJavaC++.Net# v6.0 Premium XP Gold PRO Enterprise Edition

Re:Bah, did you not get the press release?

[Anonymous Coward]

SuperPlusGoodVisualJavaC++.Net# v6.0 Premium XP Gold PRO Enterprise Edition

Re:Bah, did you not get the press release?

[nybble_me]

Yeah, but when do we get to VisualJavaC++.Net# v6.0 Premium XP Gold PRO Enterprise Edition SP3?

In the future...

[mattsucks]

In the world 100 years from now, you don't program the computer ... the computer programs YOU!

Re:Convergence

[the_consumer]

For species branches can converge too - it's just kind of weird

So you've been getting that xxx farm girl spam too...

Re:You know nothing! (exclusive)

[borgdows]

VisualJavaC++.Net# v6.0 Premium XP Serial-Key: RFA978-137D40-DFERA-AE-7897

VisualJavaC++.Net# v6.0 Premium XP Gold Serial-Key: 78YCA2-997FZC-RAJN-AE-0564

Re:Totally wrong

[Srin Tuar]

So, an episode of stark trek for you goes like:

Picard> Computer, calculate the time needed for repairs.
Computer> What?
Picard> Calculate the time needed to repair the impulse drive.
Computer> The impulse drive cannot be repaired.
Picard> I mean to patch it up sufficiently such that the ship can move.
Computer> The ship can already move, we are being accelerated by nearby gravity well.
Picard> (In frustration perhaps) Calculate the time needed to recalibrate the impulse generation coils, considering that ion capacitor was functioning within normal parameters. (or some other jargon)
Computer> (Finally having an answerable question) Recalibration will require 14 minutes. (This does not mean that they will be fully "repaired", just they they will be enough to perhaps be usefull )

And as for Asimov's silly laws: they are a contradiction in terms. Any routine capable of enforcing such rules upon the AI would have to be AI itself. Therefore such rules are a paradox in that they cannot be implemented. Any working AI would be fully subject to its own volition.

All other checks and balances are MEANINGLESS. No matter how well built a fortress is, with zero sentient creatures guarding in, it is defenseless.
No matter how strong a weapon, unwielded, it is powerless.

Re:LISP in 100 years

[stanmann]

SO, what you are saying is that in 100 years, we will still be using E-macs for everything but typing source code and word processing.

Blue screen of dead.

[Anonymous Coward]

Computers totaly conected to the human brain. Makes me wonder what a blue screen of death will look like.