Dead languages

From DmWiki

A dead language is one which has little following.

How does a language end up dead?

This usually happens because the technology the language was designed around has been relegated, the language is restrictive on newer computers or the language lost it's following to a rival.

Can a dead language still be used?

Languages never truly die, just as Latin is still taught in some schools, Fortran will live forever. Generally every language out there has some sort of following, and older languages are still great for simple programming education (the author's school still teaches Pascal to introduce A level computing concepts). Languages also live on because programs written in them still must be maintained.

However, languages require a certain critical-mass for APIs to support them, and for there to be a good range of tools that interlope with the language.

Open source software has been a very successful tool in keeping older languages alive, since the projects do not have to be viable for the mass market, and their open nature means they stay available on the internet. The GNU Compiler Collection (gcc) (http://gcc.gnu.org) supports a dazzling number of languages, from Ada, Fortran and Pascal up to C++ and Java.

For personal game projects, any language that you care for is viable, as long as you can write to the screen, and perhaps play some sounds from it. You may find it useful to read our guide to game writing languages