title: World's First Computer Programming _Language_?
body: <p>OK -- a bit of an undefined question (is the pattern of plugs in an Eniac plugboard a language ??) but contenders include:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Konrad Zuse's PlanKalkül (1940s) -
  never implemented (generally
  accepted as the first). </li>
  <li>Whatever Ada Lovelace (1840s) programmed in (not
  Ada) -- if she is the first
  programmer, as everyone says, she
  must have used the first programming
  language, no? Again probably never
  implemented - but did Babbage have
  anything that could be called a
  language? </li>
  <li>Turing's description of
  his Turing machine (1936 paper). In
  the paper he actually writes
  programs and simulates their
  execution mathematically - that
  makes it as good as (and earlier
  than) PlanKalkül in my book.</li>
  <li><p>Autocode for the Machester Mark 1 computer (1952) -- compiled, high level, beats Fortan to the punch (?). Mr Turing again (!).</p></li>
  <li><p>Fortran (Early 1950's) - beats out Lisp by a couple of years and undoubtedly passes the sniff test. But was it earlier than Mark 1 autocode ??</p></li>
  </ul>