CODEWITHSUNDEEP
ooplanguage-agnostic
Ben Aston
Ben Aston

Reputation: 55769

Origin of inheritance in programming languages

What was the first language to support inheritance? Was code re-use the design intent of the feature?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 279

Answers (1)

slebetman
slebetman

Reputation: 113994

The first object oriented language was Simula. Specifically Simula67, introduced in 1967 and implemented in 1968. Simula67 added the concept of classes and subclasses (inheritance) inspired by a research paper (theory, not any specific language) by C.A.R. Hoare describing the concept of classes as a collection of data in memory published in 1966.

So the first o-o language was Simula67 and inheritance was introduced in Simula67. It was there from the beginning.

Now, the real interesting question would be what was the first o-o language to abandon inheritance. Go is one o-o language that intentionally left out inheritance. But that is a very modern example.

Upvotes: 2

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