A simplified chronology of selected programming languages

A chronology of selected programming languages shows a few of the links between them. The diagram is not a genealogy but merely indicates major patterns of influence. The classification of languages as imperative, functional, object-oriented or declarative is also approximate; only a few "pure" languages belong exclusively to one of these categories. The chronology is based in part on time lines constructed by Éric Lévénez and by Pascal Rigaux and on information from the Association for Computing Machinery History of Programming Languages conferences.

Source: The Semicolon Wars, by Brian Hayes, American Scientist, July-August 2006.