Take a language like Java. How was it originally created? I can’t wrap my head around how someone invented a computer language to run without having some “prior” language that it allows the first lines to function. Is it just Java all the way down, like someone wrote a single line of Java and then every other line was built on that?
What about the first computer language? What was the basis that that functioned on?
Thanks for any help, I hope that was phrased in a mildly intelligible way.
Edit; I’m trying to think of it like human language: at some point there was a first “word” spoken by someone and understood by another and from there the structure started to be born. What were the first “words” on a computer that led to where we are now?
In: Technology
Java is actually run by a “virtual machine” entirely written in C++. So it’s a pretty bad example.
But C++ is being compiled by compilers entirely written in C++. How do you compile such compiler? Well, with an older C++ compiler!
But, but, what about the first compiler? It was written in assembly, a long time ago. Although people like to bootstrap C++ from time to time, aka. start from scratch with a smaller language, easier to compile. But that’s just for the kicks of it.
By the way, did you know we need a mill to make a mill?
Lots of stuff in the world is built on previously built stuff, it’s kind of a fun chicken and egg problem. Almost all of them, originally started from painstaking manual work.
Edit: It’s even more fun when you realize C++ compilers have bugs, yet produce newer C++ compilers with less (hopefully) bugs.
Latest Answers