# The Past, Present & Future of Programming Languages • Kevlin Henney • GOTO 2024

**URL:** <https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/the-past-present-future-of-programming-languages-kevlin-henney-goto-2024/9616>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [April 23, 2025, 1:58pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/the-past-present-future-of-programming-languages-kevlin-henney-goto-2024/9616 "2025-04-23T13:58:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ivanpribec](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/fortran-lang.discourse.group/ivanpribec/32/3290_2.png) [@ivanpribec](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/ivanpribec)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2025, 1:58pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/the-past-present-future-of-programming-languages-kevlin-henney-goto-2024/9616/1 "2025-04-23T13:58:38Z")

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[![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/fortran_lang/original/2X/d/d9e75fc374dc5f009e8d6b924f5b8e82f4c4b727.jpeg "The Past, Present & Future of Programming Languages • Kevlin Henney • GOTO 2024") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y7IFUYUTgg)

Some interesting points to ponder about in relation to programming language history and future evolution.

I found it amusing that Kevlin borrowed some material from [The Craft of Coding](https://craftofcoding.wordpress.com/) blog of Michael Wirth. If you don’t know him yet, Wirth has several very lucid articles on Fortran and programming in general. Before retirement Wirth taught at University of Guelph, including a course on “Software for Legacy Systems” (among others), “a course where you program in Fortran, Ada, and COBOL, some of the most dinosaur-esque languages out there still in use” as described by a [student](https://gist.github.com/jnguyen1098/210fdd73b693e22306ab94a82ce8f80c#cis3190-is-one-of-the-most-useful-courses-in-bcomp) of his.

At one point Kevlin talks about functional styles of programming. It reminded me of @milancurcic’s blog post ([Map, Filter, Reduce in Fortran 2018 | by Milan Curcic | Modern Fortran | Medium](https://medium.com/modern-fortran/map-filter-reduce-in-fortran-2018-e40b93668ed9)).

The co-routines section of the talk was interesting. These have also been suggested for Fortran before:

- [Coroutines in FORTRAN | ACM SIGPLAN Notices, 1978](https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/987649.987656)
- [Coroutines · Issue #60 · j3-fortran/fortran\_proposals · GitHub](https://github.com/j3-fortran/fortran_proposals/issues/60) (see proposal [19-169.pdf](https://j3-fortran.org/doc/year/19/19-169.pdf), 218 kB)

I suppose the big question in Fortran evolution now is from which language will the generics be borrowed from. A few of the suggested (ekhm, contended) approaches:

- [Simple Generics](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/simple-generics/5973)
- [Japanese Subgroup GENERIC proposal](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/japanese-subgroup-generic-proposal/6539)
- [Traits, Generics, and modern-day OO for Fortran](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/traits-generics-and-modern-day-oo-for-fortran/8426)
- [KART: a recommended design element toward Generics in Fortran](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/kart-a-recommended-design-element-toward-generics-in-fortran/8431)

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**Author:** ![vmagnin](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/fortran-lang.discourse.group/vmagnin/32/28_2.png) [@vmagnin](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/vmagnin)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2025, 2:50pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/the-past-present-future-of-programming-languages-kevlin-henney-goto-2024/9616/2 "2025-04-23T14:50:46Z")

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> [@ivanpribec](#):
>
> I found it amusing that Kevlin borrowed some material from [The Craft of Coding](https://craftofcoding.wordpress.com/) blog of Michael Wirth. It you don’t know him yet, Wirth has several very lucid articles on Fortran and programming in general.

Thanks for that link. Reading his three last blog articles about retirement and academia was pleasant:  
[https://craftofcoding.wordpress.com/2025/03/06/on-life-in-retirement-from-academia/](https://craftofcoding.wordpress.com/2025/03/06/on-life-in-retirement-from-academia/)  
[https://craftofcoding.wordpress.com/2025/02/10/reflections-on-25-years-in-academia/](https://craftofcoding.wordpress.com/2025/02/10/reflections-on-25-years-in-academia/)  
[https://craftofcoding.wordpress.com/2025/02/02/only-now-at-the-end-do-you-understand/](https://craftofcoding.wordpress.com/2025/02/02/only-now-at-the-end-do-you-understand/)