undefined | Better HN

0 pointsusrbinbash2y ago0 comments

> Not really.

*sight*

Okay, let's dot the i's and cross the t's then, shall we, and include languages used long long before software development became the industry behemoth it is today.

You're right. There, I said it. You are absolutely right.

Many of the concepts of functional programming were indeed pioneered in LISP, and it was indeed specified in 1960, 7 years before Simula.

But hey, let's dot another "i" and correct my statement. Because, FP isn't in contrast to OOP so much as it is in contrast to imperative programming, and all it's mutable state, right?

So, is there an imperative programming language, older than LISP, and still in use today? And the answer is: Of course there is ;-)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortran

0 comments

brabel2y ago

This was not a pedantic comment. Saying OOP is more popular because it just came first is a complete misunderstanding of history. In fact, Lisp was much more popular than any OOP language for a long time, OOP only took the world by storm with C++ and Java, much, much later.

usrbinbashOP2y ago

> Saying OOP is more popular because it just came first is a complete misunderstanding of history.

No it isn't, because the history relevant for this question doesn't begin at the very start of programming. Most programmers active today didn't go to university in the 60s. In the timeframe relevant to answer this question, the people were indeed confronted with OOP languages, and FP languages were already a niche topic, end of story.

This also coincides with programming, as an activity, massively gaining in popularity across many industries.

jghn2y ago

There's a difference between saying "for most active developers, they learned OOP first" and "OOP came first"

trealira2y ago

I'm going to guess that most programmers active today didn't go to university in the 1980s, either (that would mean they were born in the 1960s, which would put put their current age somewhere in their 60s). So there's no point in ignoring the 60s and starting history during the 1980s when most programmers didn't start programming until later decades.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse