Radio 4: Codes that Changed the World
5. The Tower of Babel
Clips from this programme
Introduction: 2000 different languages now in existence: Aleks likens today's digital world to a reverse Tower of Babel
Duration: 01:30
Each language has its place for modern software: e.g. Curiosity Rover compared with your mobile phone: How do they interact (better and more robust)
Duration: 03:07
In the wild Algorithms with un-intended effects. Functional Programming languages are not ambiguous (e.g. Haskell for poetry)
Duration: 03:51
Haskell, a Functional Programming language
Duration: 01:41
Beautiful Code, and the Joy of Programming-It must be clear and concise
Duration: 03:35
Credits
Duration: 00:08Radio 4: Codes that Changed the World
1. Fortran
First broadcast: 6th April 2015
Duration 13:56
Aleks Krotoski tells the story of the languages that have been used to talk to machines. 1/5. Fortran: The language that helped put men on the moon and harness the atom.
2. Cobol
First broadcast: 7th April 2015
Duration 13:55
Aleks Krotoski tells the story of computer languages. 2/5. Cobol: Inefficient, verbose and ugly, yet by the 1990s, 80 per cent of the world's business software was written in it.
3. Basic
First broadcast: 8th April 2015
Duration 13:56
Aleks Krotoski tells the story of computer languages. 3/5. Basic: As language of choice for home computing in the 1980s, Basic became iconic
4. Java
First broadcast: 9th April 2015
Duration 13:44
Aleks Krotoski tells the story of computer languages. 4/5. Java: The programming language that people probably interact with on a daily basis more than any other.
5. The Tower of Babel
First broadcast: 10th April 2015
Duration 13:52
Aleks Krotoski tells the story of computer languages. 5/5. The Tower of Babel: Aleks likens today's digital world to a reverse Tower of Babel.
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