There are more than 700 programming languages: Intriguing coding trivia for you  

Computers have gone through a revolution, from the first general-purpose digital computer of 1945, the ENIAC to today’s mobile varieties that we can carry in our pockets. With our increasing interactions with these devices, we have also navigated how to effectively communicate with them in their own language. This language is none other than coding- the computer language. Safe to say, it is one of the most sought-after skills of today’s day and age and has become a regular part of academic curricula in most parts of the world. Here are some interesting facts about coding that you may not be aware of. 

There are around 700 coding languages  
It may seem like an exaggeration but it is completely true- there are aroud 700 coding languages which exist. To put that into perspective, only 2 countries in the world speak more languages than that: Papua New Guinea with 836 and Indonesia with 710. The most common coding languages are Java Python and HTML. Others are more specific to particular situations such as Rust and Kotlin. 

Lord Byron’s daughter, Ava Lovelace, published the first ever algorithm 
Although not widely known, the first person to ever write what we see as the modern understanding of a programme was the famous poet Lord Byron’s daughter, Ava Lovelace. Claimed to be “mad” at that time, her mother was afraid that her daughter would have a hard time, and hence, encouraged her to learn maths and science. Ava was working with one of her peers on a mechanical general-purpose computer, known as the Analytical Engine. To her amazement, she found that the machine was capable of doing way more than simple calculations. Ava published the first-ever algorithm based on her discovery. 

All coding is in 1s and 0s 
All computers operate on the binary code, i.e., using the digits 1 and 0. It might be hard to wrap your head around, but all of the software in existence is written using these two digits. There are an infinite number of combinations possible with 1 and 0, and therefore, there is no limit to the number of languages that can be written. 

Coding was extremely helpful during World War II 
Born in England on June 23, 1912, Alan Turing was a renowned British mathematician. In fact, he is regarded to be the father of modern-day computer science. With his impeccable coding skills, he managed to crack the Enigma machine, which was a cipher that the Nazis used for their military communication operations. This played a key role in allowing the Allied Nations to decipher crucial information, thus leading them to victory. 

FORTRAN was the first-ever coding language 
Developed by John Backus and his team in 1964, FORTRAN was the first ever coding language in existence. It is still widely used today, mostly in the fields of numerical weather prediction, computational chemistry, geophysics, etc.