Derivatives of programming languages

Programmers are, apparently, unhappy with their tools. Specifically, their programming languages.

Why do I say that? Because programmers frequently revise or reinvent programming languages.

If we start with symbolic assembly language as the first programming language, we can trace the development of other languages. FORTRAN, in its beginning, was a very powerful macro assembler (or something like it). Algol was a new vision of a programming language, in part influenced by FORTRAN. Pascal was developed as a simpler language, as compared to Algol.

Changes to languages come in two forms. One is an enhancement, a new version of the same language. For example, Visual Basic had multiple versions, yet it was essentially the same language. FORTRAN changed, from FORTRAN IV to FORTRAN 66 to Fortran 77 (and later versions).

The other form is a new, separate language. C# was based on Java, yet was clearly not Java. Modula and ADA were based on Pascal, yet quite different. C++ was a form of C that had object-oriented programming.

Programmers are just not happy with their languages. Over the half-century of programming, we have had hundreds of languages. Only a small fraction have gained popularity, yet we keep tuning them, adjusting them, and deriving them. And programmers are not unwilling to revamp an existing language to meet the needs of the day.

There are two languages that are significant exceptions: COBOL and SQL. Neither of these have been used (to my knowledge) to develop other languages. At least not popular ones. Each has had new versions (COBOL-61, COBOL-74, Cobol-85, SQL-86, SQL-89, SQL-92, and so on) but none have spawned new, different languages.

There have been many languages that have had a small following and never been used to create a new language. It's one thing for a small language to live and die in obscurity. But COBOL and SQL are anything but obscure. They drive most business transactions in the world. They are used in all organizations of any size. One cannot work in the IT world without being aware of them.

So why is it that they have not been used to create new languages?

I have a few ideas.

First, COBOL and SQL are popular, capable, and well-understood. Both have been developed for decades, they work, and they can handle the work. There is little need for a "better COBOL" or a "better SQL".

Second, COBOL and SQL have active development communities. When a new version of COBOL is needed, the COBOL community responds. When a new version of SQL is needed, the SQL community responds.

Third, the primary users of COBOL and SQL (businesses and governments) tend to be large and conservative. They want to avoid risk. They don't need to take a chance on a new idea for database access. They know that new versions of COBOL and SQL will be available, and they can wait for a new version.

Fourth, COBOL and SQL are domain-specific languages, not general-purpose. They are suited to financial transactions. Hobbyists and tinkerers have little need for COBOL or a COBOL-like language. When they experiment, they use languages like C or Python ... or maybe Forth.

The desire to create a new language (whether brand new or based on an existing language) is a creative one. Each person is driven by his own needs, and each new language probably has different root causes. Early languages like COBOL and FORTRAN were created to let people be more productive. The urge to help people be more productive may still be there, but I think there is a bit of fun involved. People create languages because it is fun.