notes-computer-programming-programmingLanguageDesign-listOfInterestingProgrammingLanguagesAndParadigms

This list is not a recommendation of languages that you should learn or use (see [1] for that. The majority of the languages on this list are languages that i don't know but want to learn.

Please note that my intention here is not to be comprehensive (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Programming_language_lists if you want that), but rather to list only those languages that i consider to be of particular interest. 'Of interest' usually means that either this is one of my favorite languages to use, or that i think that a language has something to teach about programming language design (which has not yet been generally absorbed, e.g. i've heard that Lisp invented if-then-else, but by now everybody is familiar with that construct), or that i want to learn it.

• Scripting languages
  • Perl6
  • Lua
  • Ruby
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic_programming
  • Prolog
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curry_%28programming_language%29 (post-Haskell)
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_%28programming_language%29 (post-Haskell)
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_%28programming_language%29
• Languages noted for their object model
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self_%28programming_language%29 (prototypes)
  • Smalltalk
• Languages noted for their concurrency
  • Erlang
  • Fortress (abandoned but Guy Steele was working on it so worth looking at)
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/*Lisp
  • Go (golang)
  • Haskell
• Data languages
  • SQL
  • Gremlin (graph)
• System programming languages
  • C
  • Go (golang)
  • D
• Languages notes for their extensibility or flexibility
  • Lisps (noted for their macros)
    • Scheme
    • Common Lisp
    • Clojure
    • Racket
    • Shen
    • Arc
    • PLOT
    • Dylan
  • Ruby (noted for its DSLs)
  • Python (noted for its object protocols)
  • Haskell (super flexible)
  • Scala
  • ML (noted for its module system https://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=ml+module+system )
• Functional languages
  • Haskell
  • Clojure
  • F#
  • Clean
• Flexible/powerful type systems
  • Haskell
  • Scala
• Dependently typed languages
  • Epigram
  • Agda
  • Cayenne
  • Coq
• Mainstream languages (remember, not a comprehensive list!)
  • by "mainstream" i guess i mean things like imperative eager OOP with mutable variables, function calls that look like f(x,y), etc
  • Python
  • C#
• Array languages
  • MATLAB and Octave
• Stack languages
  • Joy
  • Cat
  • Forth
• Micro languages a la Jonathan Wright (http://www.acooke.org/cute/GoRocksHow0.html)
• Io
• Forth
• Lisp
• Misc
  • Io
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forth_%28programming_language%29 (said to be a small language)
  • Hypercard (Hypercard is awesome btw)
  • Javascript
  • Coffescript
  • Rust
  • Icon
  • Tcl
  • Eiffel
  • Oz
  • J
  • Bash
  • Factor

Some books and links to learn about these languages

As above, these are mostly things i want to read, not things i've read.

• Python: http://docs.python.org/tutorial/ the official tutorial is great. (i've read this one)
• Lisps:
  • http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/ Very popular book on programming languages. Free online. Focuses on Scheme, but you dont need to know any Scheme going in, it teaches you Scheme. hardcopy at http://www.amazon.com/Structure-Interpretation-Computer-Programs-Engineering/dp/0262510871/
  • http://www.paulgraham.com/onlisp.html Very popular book about making the most of Lisp macros. Common Lisp. Available free onlie.
  • http://www.amazon.com/Little-Schemer-Daniel-P-Friedman/dp/0262560992/ Popular intro book to Scheme.
  • http://www.amazon.com/Joy-Clojure-Thinking-Way/dp/1935182641 This book apparently teaches you not just Clojure but idiomatic Clojure, and explains the why of Clojure not just the what and the how. Apparently mid-level, not intro-level, but i bet i could read it.
  • http://nostarch.com/realmofracket upcoming book on Racket
• Scala: http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Scala-Comprehensive-Step-Step/dp/0981531644 . By the inventor of Scala.
• Coq: http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/sf/ Seems like a combined intro to Coq, and intro to formal semantics of programming languages, not sure. Available free online.
• Haskell: http://book.realworldhaskell.org/ Available free online and also hardcopy.

Important languages of historical interest

• BASIC
• Fortran
• Cobol
• Algol
• APL
• Pascal
• Logo
• C++
• Java
• Perl
• Ocaml

see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generational_list_of_programming_languages

http://james-iry.blogspot.com/2009/05/brief-incomplete-and-mostly-wrong.html

Links

• http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2413816