languages.md

50+ Languages in Three Decades

Here are the programming languages I've used over the last three decades. From BASIC in the late 80s to Rust today, each one taught me something about solving problems with code.

Late 1980s – Early 1990s

• I learned coding with BASIC/QUICKBASIC on Atari and later IBM XT computer in 1980s.
• I learned other languages in college or on my own like C, Pascal, Prolog, Lisp, FORTRAN and PERL.
• In college, I used Icon to build compilers.
• My first job was mainframe work and I used COBOL and CICS for applications, JCL and REXX for scripting and SAS for data processing.
• Later at a physics lab, I used C/C++, Fortran for applications and Python for scripting and glue language.
• I used a number of 4GL languages like dBase, FoxPro, Paradox, Delphi. Later I used Visual Basic and PowerBuilder for building client applications.
• I used SQL and PL/SQL throughout my career for relational databases.

Web Era Mid/Late 1990s

• The web era introduced a number of new languages like HTML, Javascript, CSS, ColdFusion, and Java.
• I used XML/XSLT/XPath/XQuery, PHP, VBScript and ActionScript.
• I used RSS/SPARQL/RDF for building semantic web applications.
• I used IDL/CORBA for building distributed systems.

Mobile/Services Era 2000s

• I used Ruby for building web applications, Erlang/Elixir for building concurrent applications.
• I used Groovy for writing tests and R for data analysis.
• When iOS was released, I used Objective-C to build mobile applications.
• In this era, functional languages gained popularity and I used Scala/Haskell/Clojure for some projects.

New Languages Era Mid 2010s

• I started using Go for networking/concurrent applications.
• I started using Swift for iOS applications and Kotlin for Android apps.
• I initially used Flow language from Facebook but then started using TypeScript instead of JavaScript.
• I used Dart for Flutter applications.
• I used GraphQL for some of client friendly backend APIs.
• I used Solidity for Ethereum smart contracts.
• I used Lua as a glue language with Redis, HAProxy and other similar systems.
• I used Rust and became my go to language for highly performant applications.

What Three Decades of Languages Taught Me

1. Every language is a bet on what matters most: Safety vs. speed vs. expressiveness vs. ecosystem vs. hiring.
2. Languages don't die, they fade: I still see COBOL in production. I still debug Perl scripts. Legacy is measured in decades.
3. The fundamentals never change: Whether it's BASIC or Rust, you're still managing state, controlling flow, and abstracting complexity.
4. Polyglotism is a superpower: Each language teaches you a different way to think. Functional programming makes you better at OOP. Systems programming makes you better at scripting.
5. The best language is the one your team can maintain: I've seen beautiful Scala codebases become liabilities and ugly PHP applications become billion-dollar businesses.

What's Next?

I'm watching Zig (Rust without the complexity?) and it's on my list for next language to learn.

#	Language	Era	Primary Use
1	BASIC/QuickBASIC	Late 1980s	Learning
2	C	Late 1980s - Early 1990s	College/Applications
3	Pascal	Late 1980s - Early 1990s	College
4	Prolog	Late 1980s - Early 1990s	College
5	Lisp	Late 1980s - Early 1990s	College
6	FORTRAN	Late 1980s - Early 1990s	College/Physics Lab
7	Perl	Late 1980s - Early 1990s	Self-taught
8	Icon	Late 1980s - Early 1990s	Compiler Building
9	COBOL	Early 1990s	Mainframe Applications
10	CICS	Early 1990s	Mainframe Applications
11	JCL	Early 1990s	Mainframe Scripting
12	REXX	Early 1990s	Mainframe Scripting
13	SAS	Early 1990s	Data Processing
14	C++	Early 1990s	Physics Lab Applications
15	Python	Early 1990s	Scripting/Glue Language
16	dBase	Early 1990s	4GL Applications
17	FoxPro	Early 1990s	4GL Applications
18	Paradox	Early 1990s	4GL Applications
19	Delphi	Early 1990s	4GL Applications
20	Visual Basic	Early 1990s	Client Applications
21	PowerBuilder	Early 1990s	Client Applications
22	SQL	Early 1990s - Present	Relational Databases
23	PL/SQL	Early 1990s - Present	Relational Databases
24	HTML	Mid/Late 1990s	Web Development
25	JavaScript	Mid/Late 1990s	Web Development
26	CSS	Mid/Late 1990s	Web Styling
27	ColdFusion	Mid/Late 1990s	Web Development
28	Java	Mid/Late 1990s	Web Development
29	XML	Mid/Late 1990s	Data/Configuration
30	XSLT	Mid/Late 1990s	Data Transformation
31	XPath	Mid/Late 1990s	XML Querying
32	XQuery	Mid/Late 1990s	XML Querying
33	PHP	Mid/Late 1990s	Web Development
34	VBScript	Mid/Late 1990s	Scripting
35	ActionScript	Mid/Late 1990s	Flash Development
36	RSS	Mid/Late 1990s	Semantic Web
37	SPARQL	Mid/Late 1990s	Semantic Web
38	RDF	Mid/Late 1990s	Semantic Web
39	IDL	Mid/Late 1990s	Distributed Systems
40	CORBA	Mid/Late 1990s	Distributed Systems
41	Ruby	2000s	Web Applications
42	Erlang	2000s	Concurrent Applications
43	Elixir	2000s	Concurrent Applications
44	Groovy	2000s	Testing
45	R	2000s	Data Analysis
46	Objective-C	2000s	iOS Applications
47	Scala	2000s	Functional Programming
48	Haskell	2000s	Functional Programming
49	Clojure	2000s	Functional Programming
50	Go	Mid 2010s	Networking/Concurrent Apps
51	Swift	Mid 2010s	iOS Applications
52	Kotlin	Mid 2010s	Android Applications
53	Flow	Mid 2010s	Type Checking
54	TypeScript	Mid 2010s	JavaScript Alternative
55	Dart	Mid 2010s	Flutter Applications
56	GraphQL	Mid 2010s	Backend APIs
57	Solidity	Mid 2010s	Smart Contracts
58	Lua	Mid 2010s	Glue Language
59	Rust	Mid 2010s - Present	High Performance Apps