Computing Languages with Respect to Cars


Ada: An army-green Mercedes Benz staff car. Power steering, power brakes, and automatic transmission are standard. No other color or options are available. If it's good enough for generals, it's good enough for you.

ALGOL 60: An Austin Mini. Boy that's a small car.

ALGOL 68: An Aston Martin. An impressive car but not just anyone can drive it.

APL: A double-decker bus. It takes rows and columns of passengers to the same place all at the same time but it drives only in reverse and is instrumented in Greek.

Assembler: A formula I race car. Very fast but difficult to drive and maintain.

BASIC: A second-hand Tambler with a rebuilt engine and patched upholstery. You dad bought it for you to learn to drive. You'll ditch it as soon as you can afford a new one.

C: A black Firebird; the all macho car. Comes with optional seatbelt (lint) and optional fuzz buster (escape to assembler).

COBOL: A delivery van. It's bulky and ugly but it does the work.

FORTH: A go-cart.

FORTRAN II: A Model T Ford. Once it was the king of the road.

FORTRAN IV: A Model A Ford.

FORTRAN 77: A six-cylinder Ford Fairlane with standard transmission and no seat belts.

LISP: An electric car. It's simple but slow. Seat belts are not available.

LOGO: A Kiddies replica of a Rolls Royce. Comes with a real engine and a working horn.

Maple/MACSYMS: All-terrain vehicles.

Modula II: A Volkswagen Rabbit with a trailer hitch.

Pascal: A Volkswagen Beetle. It's small but sturdy. Was once popular with intellectual types.

PL/I: A Cadillac convertible with automatic transmission, a two-toned paint job, white-wall tires, chrome exhaust pipes, and fuzzy dice hanging in the windshield.

PROLOG/LUCID: Prototype concept cars.