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May 30, 2026 · Fundamentals

Which of the 10 Nearly‑Dead Programming Languages Still Shape Modern Tech?

The article surveys ten historically influential programming languages—COBOL, ALGOL, APL, BASIC, PL/I, SIMULA, Pascal, CLU, ML, and Smalltalk—explaining their original purposes, key technical contributions, reasons they fell out of mainstream use, and how their ideas continue to underpin today’s software ecosystems.