Built for systems programming, C remains deeply embedded in operating systems, networking and performance-critical software.
Both continue supporting specialised scientific workloads and major enterprise systems connected to modern digital services.
Their direct infrastructure roles are narrower, but their influence survives through specialised software, education and development environments.
The internet is built on technologies spanning several generations. While developers today commonly use JavaScript, Python, Java and Go, several much older programming languages continue to matter. Their code and descendants remain present in operating systems, enterprise applications, scientific platforms, databases, servers and embedded devices that connect to modern networks. These languages survived for their reliability, portability, specialised capabilities, and enormous installed codebases made replacement difficult. Some still run close to the hardware, while others support legacy systems that remain connected to today’s online services.
Origin: Early 1970s
Creator: Dennis Ritchie, Bell Labs
C was developed by Dennis Ritchie at Bell Labs between 1969 and 1973, primarily as a systems implementation language for Unix. Its combination of portability, efficiency and relatively low-level control made it fundamental to operating-system development. Unix itself was rewritten in C in the 1970s, helping establish the language’s influence across computing.
Today, C remains important in operating systems, networking components, embedded devices, compilers and performance-critical software. It does not literally run the entire internet, but C-based software sits underneath many networked systems and devices that modern internet services depend on.
Origin: 1957
Development: IBM team led by John Backus
Fortran was created at IBM under John Backus for scientific and technical computing. It was designed to make numerical programming more practical while producing efficient machine code. The language became a major force in scientific computing and remained widely used for decades.
Fortran is still used in areas such as numerical simulation, engineering, weather modelling and high-performance computing. Those workloads increasingly interact with cloud platforms, remote data services and networked research infrastructure. Fortran therefore represents an indirect but important connection to the modern internet: the language often powers computational workloads whose results and data are delivered through contemporary online systems.
Origin: 1959
Development: Industry and government committee
COBOL, or Common Business-Oriented Language, emerged in 1959. It was designed for business data processing. It became widely adopted across banking, government, and industry. Its English-like syntax and portability across computer manufacturers helped drive adoption.
Decades of investment left financial institutions and government agencies with enormous COBOL codebases. Modern online banking and other digital services can therefore depend on back-end systems containing COBOL, even when customers interact through mobile apps or websites. In these cases, COBOL is usually supporting legacy enterprise infrastructure rather than directly powering the visible web interface.
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Origin: 1956–1958
Creator: John McCarthy
Lisp emerged from John McCarthy’s work on artificial intelligence during the 1956 Dartmouth research project. The language was formally implemented by 1958 and became closely associated with symbolic computation and early AI research. Its distinctive treatment of code and data as lists also influenced programming-language design.
Lisp no longer dominates mainstream software development, but it continues in specialised applications, research and language experimentation. Its historical influence is particularly significant in AI and programming-language research. Modern internet-connected research environments can still host Lisp systems, making it an example of an older language surviving primarily through specialised use rather than mainstream web infrastructure.
Origin: 1964
Creators: John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz, Dartmouth College
BASIC was introduced at Dartmouth in 1964 as the Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. Kemeny and Kurtz designed it alongside a time-sharing system to make computing accessible to students and non-specialists. Dartmouth says the first BASIC programs ran on its time-sharing system on May 1, 1964.
BASIC evolved into numerous dialects and implementations, including Microsoft’s Visual Basic family. Its direct role in modern internet infrastructure is limited, but its descendants remain relevant in software development and automation. More importantly, BASIC helped establish the idea that programming could be accessible beyond specialist computer operators, influencing generations of developers.
Programming languages can remain relevant long after newer technologies emerge. Their persistence reflects decades of accumulated software, specialised expertise and dependable infrastructure. The modern internet is therefore not built around one generation of programming languages. New frameworks and services frequently operate above older layers, while C, Fortran, COBOL, Lisp and BASIC continue through systems, applications, research environments and technologies connected to the online world.
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C remains important because its low-level control, efficiency and portability make it suitable for operating systems, embedded software, compilers, networking components and performance-critical applications.
Yes. Fortran remains relevant in scientific and high-performance computing, particularly for numerical workloads that can interact with cloud platforms, research networks and internet-connected computational infrastructure.
COBOL continues supporting many long-established banking and enterprise systems because organisations have accumulated substantial codebases, specialised expertise and critical applications around the language.
Yes. Lisp continues appearing in specialised software, programming-language research and artificial-intelligence environments, while its symbolic-processing concepts have influenced generations of programming-language development.
BASIC remains available through modern dialects and development environments. Its broader legacy also continues through programming education, where its original accessibility helped introduce generations of users to coding.