Python Programming

GNU Octave

Used for numerical computations, GNU Octave has lots of tools for common math and algebra functions and tasks. GNU Octave is customizable, can run via command line or through batch, and can dynamically load up FORTRAN or C for other tasks. GNU Octave is distributed under the GNU General Public License published by the Free Software Foundation.

Originally developed by Sun Microsystems for set-top boxes and handheld devices in an incarnation known as Oak, Java moved to the World Wide Web in 1995 and took off because it was multi-platform. Java is similar to C++ but was designed with OOP and security in mind from the ground up, and efforts were made in its structure to remove features that caused common errors and bugs (like pointers and garbage collection).

Icon is another high-level language used often in research and text processing. Icon was developed at the University of Arizona and is loosely based on Bell Lab's Snobol.

Short for MODUlar LAnguage, Modula precedes Modula-2, developed as a system language for the Lilith workstation. The central concept behind Modula is the module— a programming construct that can be used to encapsulate a set of related subprograms and data structures. Modules are also restricted in their visibility from other portions of the program. Modula-2 precedes Modula-2? and Modula-3.

Pascal was developed in the late 1960s by Niklaus Wirth and was named after Blaise Pascal, who was a 17th-century French mathematician who constructed early adding machines. In addition to being high-level, Pascal is also a structured programming language, which forces design into its very nature. Pascal is often used as a teaching tool because of its regimented structure.

Short for Practical Extraction and Report Language, Perl was released in 1987 by Larry Wall, who developed the language while working for the National Security Agency. Larry wanted his language to be based on common sense programming techniques and wanted applications developed with Perl to be quickly and easily written. Perl was built originally as a simple language to scan text files, extract information from those files, and print reports based on that information. It has blossomed into a full programming language with hundreds of supplemental libraries. Perl is easy to learn and is commonly found on the Internet, used in conjunction with CGI and HTML.