Are there any programming languages that are completely extinct?

Question

Just wondering if there any programming language that were once very popular but now dead. I do not mean less popular but not used at all. I guess once the programming language is popular enough to cross the inflection point, it will have a very slow "death" if at all. In other words, I think they will have a long tail decay but never completely gone. Any thoughts.

taylodl · Accepted Answer

It may depend on what we mean by "dead." I'm thinking hobbyists may still use just about anything just to tinker with things, but I don't think that's particularly interesting in this context. What's more interesting is whether it's still being used in a commercial context?
In a commercial context there's different stages of dying, right?
Terminally Ill - the programming language is descending down the TIOBE index and is being used for fewer and fewer new projects.
Dying - the programming language isn't being used at all for new projects but is still being used in existing deployments. Minor modifications may be made, but nothing requiring a significant effort.
Dead - the programming language isn't being used at all for new projects nor is it being used in existing deployments.
Using these terms, I don't know if there are any Dead languages, but if there were, I'd imagine it would be Basic from the 80s (Apple, Commodore, Atari) and UCSD Pascal. I'd love to know if I'm wrong or what other languages would be "Dead" in the way I've defined it.

not_your_vase · Answer

As long as there are machines that can run it, it won't die most probably. Especially nowadays, people love writing retro compilers for modern systems.However once there are no machines to run it, I think it can die out. Of course that depends on the definition of language. Have no idea if the hole-arrangement on punchcards could be considered a separate programming language (or just proto-ASM or whatever). If it's a separate language however, than it did go extinct, due to the punch cards' extinction.

mikequinlan · Answer

PL/360 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PL360"PL360 (or PL/360) is a system programming language designed by Niklaus Wirth and written by Wirth, Joseph W. Wells Jr., and Edwin Satterthwaite Jr. for the IBM System/360 computer at Stanford University. A description of PL360 was published in early 1968, although the implementation was probably completed before Wirth left Stanford in 1967."

kjs3 · Answer

Depending on your definition of 'popular', Xerox Mesa & Cedar? Algol-68?

beardyw · Answer

Of course in the 70s there were (to us today) weird and wonderful devices popping up with programming languages of their own. I used a few. Could I name theirvlanguage, no. They are probably long gone.So gone, but not very popular!

AnimalMuppet · Answer

Maybe I'm showing my ignorance, but... does anyone still use Autocode?BLISS?CLU?SNOBOL?It was harder than I expected to find examples, though.

JohnFen · Answer

I can't think of a single one, now that you mention it.

busterarm · Answer

Even PL/I is still in use...Maybe Simula?

Are there any programming languages that are completely extinct?

Depending on your definition of 'popular', Xerox Mesa & Cedar? Algol-68?

Of course in the 70s there were (to us today) weird and wonderful devices popping up with programming languages of their own. I used a few. Could I name theirvlanguage, no. They are probably long gone.
So gone, but not very popular!

Maybe I'm showing my ignorance, but... does anyone still use Autocode?
BLISS?
CLU?
SNOBOL?
It was harder than I expected to find examples, though.

I can't think of a single one, now that you mention it.

Even PL/I is still in use...
Maybe Simula?