What is the name given to the first computer (machine) language?

Answer 1

Initially Charles Babbage's difference engine could only be made to execute tasks by changing the gears which executed the calculations. Thus, the earliest form of a computer language was physical motion. Eventually, physical motion was replaced by electrical signals when the US Government built Von Neumann's ENIAC in 1942. This language followed many of the same principles of Babbage's "engine" and so, could only be "programmed" by presetting switches and rewiring the entire system for each new "program" or calculation. This process proved to be, as you can imagine based on todays systems very tedious.

In 1949, a few years after Von Neumann's work, the language "Short Code" was developed. It was the first computer language for electronic devices and it required the programmer to change its statements into 0's and 1's by hand. Although not fully following and very tirersome it was the first step towards the complex languages of today. In 1951, Grace Hopper wrote the first compiler, A-0. A compiler is a program that turns the language's statements into 0's and 1's for a computer to understand. This lead to faster programming, as the programmer no longer had to do the work by hand during the systems process and alos allowed for larger more complex processes to be undertaken.

In 1957, the first of the major languages appeared in the form of FORTRAN. its an abbreviation for FORmula TRANslating system. So basically the first language was in fact cogs and wheels.

Answer 2

ASCll (APEX)

Answer 3

ascii