45 years since its creation. The C language still very popular
Every so often, I think about the meme of the 100 year language. The idea is that we need to start working towards the languages we&#x27;ll use in 100 years. Instead, I wonder how many we already have.<p>Fortan: 59<p>C: 43<p>C++: 33<p>Python: 25<p>Php: 21<p>Javascript: 20<p>Java: 20<p>It&#x27;s still a long time until any of those languages reach 100. But longevity seems to be the rule, not the exception. How many languages that were widespread actually died?[0] I don&#x27;t pretend to know all the languages that have ever been popular, but not many that subsequently died come to mind. Cobol, maybe some lisp dialects, if you don&#x27;t count Common Lisp as their successor? Is PL&#x2F;1 dead? Was APL big enough to make the list?<p>Probably some of the languages I listed above will die before they&#x27;re 100. Others might be niche, like Fortran already is. But I wouldn&#x27;t guarantee it.<p>[0] Where dead doesn&#x27;t rule out someone being paid to maintain ancient code. By that standard, it&#x27;s unclear whether anything will ever die (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.snellman.net&#x2F;blog&#x2F;archive&#x2F;2015-09-01-the-most-obsolete-infrastructure-money-could-buy&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.snellman.net&#x2F;blog&#x2F;archive&#x2F;2015-09-01-the-most-ob...</a>)