This repository contains reproducible authoring sources for an HTML guide comparing operators, data structures, and language features across eleven historically Free Open-Source Software (FOSS) programming languages significant for data science in approximate historical order, emphasizing the evolution of syntax and cross-language influence. Languages are arranged chronologically to illustrate how features migrated and evolved across the ecosystem [@Spinellis2016; @Aho1979; @Aho1988].
The eleven languages covered are:
- AWK (1977),
- C (ANSI 1989),
- Perl 5.0 (1994),
- R (1993-),
- R 4.1+ (2021),
- Python 2.7 (2010),
- Python 3.8+ (2019),
- Bash 4.0+ (2009),
- Julia 1.0+ (2018),
- Rust 1.0 (2015)
- Rust 2021
Key Concepts Explained in Footnotes:
Throughout the HTML document guide, technical terms are explained in footnotes. Look for superscript numbers for detailed explanations of concepts like duck typing, lazy evaluation, broadcasting, and more.
This guide to FOSS programming languages was prepared and distributed for DSC 011 Spring 2026 --- Introduction to the Computing and Statistical Programming and the FASTRust working group by Professor David H. Ardell, with assistance of claude.ai (Pro) Sonnet models 4.4 through 4.6, over January-February 2026.
© 2026 David H. Ardell. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
You are free to share (copy and redistribute) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon) this material for any purpose, including commercially, provided you give appropriate credit, link to the license, and indicate if changes were made.
Suggested citation:
David H. Ardell (2026). Comparative Guide to Free Open-Source Data
Science Programming Language Operators and Features: Historical
Evolution and Cross-Language Influences.
https://github.com/dhard/DSC011-S26-Guide-FOSS-Languages
Licensed under CC BY 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/