BASIC, FORTRAN, and ALGOL
in the early 1970s

The first three computer languages I learned

After I started learning computer languages in high school in 1971, it conveniently turned out that I learned one new computer language per year for three consecutive years:

BASIC, 1971
FORTRAN, 1972
ALGOL, 1973

In addition to their relationship to my own history and my personal affection for them, these three languages are quite similar since they are all important, influential, imperative languages from the same era, which makes for an interesting comparison chart that I created and posted here. This comparison chart should also be of historical and technical value because I found out when compiling this chart that the syntax information for the vintage versions of these languages is hard to find nowadays, especially online.

What became of these languages?

BASIC: Still going, got a big boost from being included free with the Windows operating system (at least until 1995), and another boost from Visual Basic since that version has modern OOP features. Most new versions of BASIC have a modern generic programming language appearance to them, such as the "LET" keyword no longer being required on assignment statements, and mixed case identifiers of arbitrary length.
FORTRAN: Still going, also refuses to die because it keeps changing with the times. The version I knew--Fortran 66--turned into Fortran 77 in 1977, then Fortran 90 in 1990, and now there's a Fortran 95 and a Visual Fortran. This language is also becoming generic in appearance and operation, having picked up recursion ability for a while, discouragement of implicit typing, discouragement of GO TO statements, mixed case identifiers, simpler output formatting, and so on.
ALGOL: Dying out, though it is still popular in Europe. It was greatly overshadowed by Pascal in 1975, which is a very similar-looking language, then further overshadowed by C and Ada, then further by C++ and Java, all of which are improved descendants that have mostly replaced this influential predecessor.

Did I miss any important high-order languages back then?

COBOL: Definitely common in that era, but only for business majors, not computer science majors.
PL/I: Supposedly common for a while, but it was never very popular, now disparaged and dying.
LISP: Uncommon then, used only in certain academic circles for A.I., a different paradigm, though still used.
APL: I didn't hear of this for a long time, this would have required special keyboards, language now dead.
Simula: A language specialized for simulations, and in a different paradigm, later led to Smalltalk and C++.

Therefore, fortunately, no, I didn't miss anything immediately important back then. Somehow by luck and wise management, I managed to learn only the most useful languages of that time. The other languages of that era were either not general purpose languages (i.e., they were tailored to business, simulations, or A.I.), or they required special equipment. If I had encountered an additional language required for computer science majors back then, it would probably have been PL/I, though that was never offered at my school. If I had continued learning new computer languages as my school required them, the next language I most likely would have needed to learn would have been UCSD Pascal, but not until around 1975-1976. All this reinforces my assertion that this featured trio of languages is a particularly important and historically focused set.

CLYCL comparison chart

(my own term:)
CLYCLs = Computer Language Years Computer Languages = {BASIC, FORTRAN, ALGOL}

clycl_comparison.htm

Individual CLYCLs

BASIC
FORTRAN
ALGOL

Checkbook font

"Checkbook font" is the name of the (early) futuristic computer font having squarish letters with thick portions that make computer processing of those letters easier. This font was particularly popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s and can be seen on the covers of various computer language texts from that era.

Heaps (1972), Pavlovich (1971), Mullish (1968)

This font can be downloaded at various Internet sites for free:

http://www.searchfreefonts.com/categories/7/?p=12 (5-4-05)
http://simplythebest.net/fonts/computer_fonts.html (5-4-05)

Computer movies of the early 1970s

In the early 1970s there were very few recent movies that prominently featured (non-robot) computers, unlike in later years. The movies that computer buffs enjoyed most in the early 1970s were probably only the following. I myself greatly enjoyed the science fiction movies from this list back then, most of which I saw both in the theater and on TV.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969)
Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970)
The Andromeda Strain (1971)

Some older movies featuring computers, many of which I never saw, are:

Forbidden Planet (1956)
Desk Set (1957)
Around the World Under the Sea (1965)
The Fat Spy (1966)
Billion Dollar Brain (1967)
Hot Millions (1968)

Movies with important computer roles became much more commonplace in the late '70s and beyond, such as:

1970s
Logan's Run (1976), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Alien (1979)
1980s
Tron (1982), Blade Runner (1982), Superman III (1983), War Games (1983), 2010 (1984), Electric Dreams (1984), The Terminator (1984), Brazil (1985), Explorers (1985), Real Genius (1985), Weird Science (1985), The Fly (1986), Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), Short Circuit 2 (1988)
1990s
Total Recall (1990), Cybernator (1991), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), The Lawnmower Man (1992), Sneakers (1992), Jurassic Park (1993), Goldeneye (1995), Hackers (1995), Strange Days (1995), Virtuosity (1995), Johnny Mnemonic (1995), The Net (1995), Ghost in the Shell (1996), Independence Day (1996), Lawnmower Man 2: Jobe's War (1996), Mission: Impossible (1996), Enemy of the State (1998), Mercury Rising (1998), Pi (1998), You've Got Mail (1998), eXistenZ (1999), The Matrix (1999), NetForce (1999), Office Space (1999), The Thirteenth Floor (1999)
2000s
Takedown (2000), AntiTrust (2001), The Matrix Revisited (2001), Startup.com (2001), Swordfish (2001), Simone (2002), The Animatrix (2003), The Matrix Reloaded (2003), The Matrix Revolutions (2003), The Italian Job (2003), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), National Treasure (2004)

The Disney Company should be given special credit for the concept of Tron. The Disney Company was apparently one of the first companies to anticipate the upcoming proliferation of computer movies. Even through Tron wasn't initially popular, neither was Fantasia (1940)-- another Disney movie that was ahead of its time-- and the popularity of both increased in later years until they both reached the status of classics.