Plankalkül Dead
Plankalkül
KindProgramming language
Appeared1948
Ended1951
StatusDead
CreatorKonrad Zuse
FamilyIndependent
Sourcezuse.zib.de ↗
The first high-level programming language ever designed — arrays, records, conditionals — published by Konrad Zuse in 1948 but never implemented in his lifetime; the first compiler arrived only in 1975, decades after the design.
19251950197520002025
Created by Konrad Zuse
Konrad Zuse designed the Plankalkül between 1942 and 1945 — the first high-level programming language ever conceived, complete with data structures, conditionals, and loops, forty years before any computer could run it.\n\nIt was never implemented in Zuse's lifetime; a compiler appeared only in 2000. The design anticipated structured programming by decades and went unread until 1972.