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'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'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'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't count Common Lisp as their successor? Is PL/1 dead? Was APL big enough to make the list?<p>Probably some of the languages I listed above will die before they're 100. Others might be niche, like Fortran already is. But I wouldn't guarantee it.<p>[0] Where dead doesn't rule out someone being paid to maintain ancient code. By that standard, it's unclear whether anything will ever die (<a href="https://www.snellman.net/blog/archive/2015-09-01-the-most-obsolete-infrastructure-money-could-buy/" rel="nofollow">https://www.snellman.net/blog/archive/2015-09-01-the-most-ob...</a>)