Plankalkul, the first algorithmic programming language, was created by Konrad Zuse.

Claude Shannon wrote a book called "The Mathematical Theory of Communication" for engineers. His book described how to code data in a way that they could check for accuracy.

John Backus programmed IBM's 701 computer using speedcoding. Speedcoding requires more memory and compute time, but made it easier to program. 

Logic Theorist software, created by Herbert Simon and Allen Newell, had rules of reasoning and proved symbolic logic theorems.

 GM-NAA I/O, the first operating system for the IBM 704, allowed batch processing, which is a simple way to combine existing commands into new commands. It was created by Bob Patrick of General Motors and Owen Mock of North American Aviation.  

At MIT, researchers started to experiment with using keyboards as a direct input into the computer.

MATH-MATIC was a new version of compiler for the UNIVAC. This compiler, as well as its predecessor [the A-0 compiler], was designed by Grace Hopper. The creation of this compiler led to the construction of FLOW-MATIC in the same year. FLOW-MATIC was the first English-language business data processing compiler.

FORTRAN (formula translator), used loops to allow the user to type in a single set of instructions to have the computer perform a repetitive task.

ERMA, the Electronic Recording Method of Accounting, digitized checking for the Bank of America by creating a computer-readable font. A special scanner read account numbers preprinted on checks in magnetic ink.

Common Business Oriented Language (COBOL), was developed by a team of computer manufacturers and the Pentagon for business use. It was hoped to have run on any computer that had a compiler, which worked with a few exceptions. Howard Bromberg, one of the creators, made the tombstone in this picture, fearing the language had no future. COBOL is still used to this day.

LISP, created by John McCarthy, was the first computer language designed specifically for writing artificial intelligence programs.

Space War! was considered the first interactive computer game. It was created by students at MIT: Slug Russell, Shag Graetz, and Alan Kotok. The display featured interactive graphics that inspired future video games. Using early versions of joysticks, players fired at each other's spaceships and navigated their ship away from the sun and the enemy's ship.

Sketchpad, developed by Ivan Sutherland as his MIT doctoral thesis, is a real time computer drawing system. In this program, using a light pen, the user could draw and rearrange figures on the screen.

American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) set a standard for the binary values of the alphabet, numbers, and other symbols, or functions.

BASIC is an easy-to-learn programming language, created by Thomas Kurtz and John Kemeny for their students at Dartmouth College. It is still used today.

Simula, an object oriented language, was created by Kristen Nygaard and Ole-John Dahl. It grouped data and instructions into blocks called objects.

LOGO is a computer language, designed by Seymour Papert, for children. It controlled the actions of an electronic turtle to make drawn designs on a video display monitor.

UNIX is an operatidn system created by AT&T Bell Laboratories programmers. UNIX combined many the timesharing and file management features. The UNIX operating system broadly accepted among engineers and scientists.

Nolan Bushnell created Pong, introducing his new company, Atari video games. To see our version of Pong, go to the games section.

CP/M, created by Gary Kildall, was an operating system for personal computers. It allowed one version of a program to run on a variety of computers.

IBM's data encryption standard, DES. It required an eight-number password for scrambling and unscrambling data, allowing for 70 quadrillion possible combinations.

VisiCalc, (visible calculator), created by Daniel Bricklin Robert Frankston, was created for the Apple II. It could automatically recalculate values within a spread sheet. More than 100,000 copies sold in one year.

The Microsoft Disk Operating System (MS-DOS) was written for the IBM PC. Microsoft and IBM would continue to work in partenership.

Lotus 1-2-3, an operating system for IBM created by Mitch Kapor, ran much faster than other operating systems of its time. It had good spreadsheet, graphics, and data retrieval capabilities.

Microsoft Word, originally called Multi-Tool Word, was developed at the same time as Microsoft's Windows. Windows, however was not available until 1985. Microsoft distributed 450,000 disks with a demo version of the Word program in PC World magazine.

PageMaker, made by Paul Brainerd, founder of Aldus Corp., was a desktop publishing program for Macintosh computers. Users of PageMaker could easily combine graphics and text. Two years later, an IBM version came out.

The C++ programming language, created by Bjarne Stroustrup of AT? Bell Laboratories, established itself as the main object-oriented language used in the computer industry. In the preface of his book, "The C++ Programming Language," Stroustrup wrote, "C++ is a general purpose programming language designed to make programming more enjoyable for the serious programmer. Except for minor details, C++ is a superset of the C programming language. In addition to the facilities provided by C, C++ provides flexible and efficient facilities for defining new types.... The key concept in C++ is class. A class is a user-defined type. Classes provide data hiding, guaranteed initialization of data, implicit type conversion for user-defined types, dynamic typing, user-controlled memory management, and mechanisms for overloading operators.... C++ retains C's ability to deal efficiently with the fundamental objects of the hardware (bits, bytes, words, addresses, etc.). This allows the user-defined types to be implemented with a pleasing degree of efficiency."

SimCity, made by Maxis, is a video game. This game allows user to create a new city, starting by creating a landscape, then: constructing buildings roads, and waterways; providing services to the community; and dealing with disasters. A number of other simulation games were created in the series, including SimEarth, SimAnt, and SimLife

The Silicon Graphics booth at Siggraph's convention featured virtual reality, a computer-generated 3-D environment that allows the user to interact with it. Virtual reality was soon used in video games, education, and travel, and design.

Windows 3.0, created by Microsoft, supported graphical applications and allowed multiple programs to run simontaneously. Many applications that would run under Windows 3.0, including versions of Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel, were designed in advance. PCs became more "user-friendly," increasing their popularity.