jane sammet has written a nice article on the history and future of programming languages (higer level) back in '72 and the problems to write about it adequate.

at that time 172 languages were in use in the states alone. not easy to answer: what are the interrelationships among those hundred of languages that were developed since 1952 (she quotes as the first one the language short code written for univac)

problem to find correct dates.

We--as a profession and an industry--tend to toss around dates without being very specific about what they meanand third, the relationships and descendants of languages. Thus various people would define "the earliest date" for COBOL as 1959, 1960, or 1961, and yet COBOL has one of the clearest and best-documented histories

another problem: definition and variations of a language: is it a dialect or something new. what is something "new"?

what are the reasons that a language becomes widely used?

For example, the psychological issue of snob appeal is more important than many people might think.

71 there was a language called 'gedanken', it has to do with the theory for programming language semantics, developed by d. scott and c. strachey in the 70s; and it was developed by a pipe smoking guy named reynolds.

The recent development of programming languages suggests that the simultaneous achievement of simplicity and generality in language design is a serious unsolved problem. (J.C. Reynolds, 1970)

nato software engineering conference ('68,'69 and the reports)

the present report is concerned with a problem crucial to the use of computers, viz. the so-called software, or programs, developed to control their action. (68)

the nice thing at that time not even the people who typed the report are mentioned, but also what typwriter they were using and who operated the tape recorder. somehow this tradition should be reinstalled.

H.A.Kinslow (computer systems consultant, has written about time-sharing monitor system,1964): There are two classes of system designers. The first, if given five problems will solve them one at a time. The second will come back and announce that these aren’t the real problems, and will eventually propose a solution to the single problem which underlies the original five. This is the ‘system type’ who is great during the initial stages of a design project. However, you had better get rid of him after the first six months if you want to get a working system. (software engineering 1968, p15)