Our Mission
Many believe older programming languages are obsolete relics, replaced by newer, “better” alternatives. We disagree.
CodeArchaeology exists to prove that programming languages - from FORTRAN to Rust, COBOL to Python - are not just historically interesting, but still viable, runnable, and valuable today.
What We Do
- Document languages - From mainstream to obscure, we provide working examples
- Provide Docker images - Run any language without complex local setup
- Progressive tutorials - From Hello World to advanced features
- Compare and contrast - See how different languages solve the same problems
Why It Matters
Understanding programming language history helps us:
- Appreciate modern features - Know where they came from
- Make better choices - Right tool for the right job
- Maintain legacy systems - Millions of lines of COBOL still run banks
- Learn from the past - Old solutions to new problems
Languages We Cover
We’re building a comprehensive library of programming languages, including:
- Mainstream: Java, Python, C, C++, JavaScript, Go, Rust
- Enterprise: COBOL, PL/I, RPG, ABAP
- Scientific: FORTRAN, MATLAB, R, Julia
- Systems: Assembly, C, Rust, Zig
- Scripting: Perl, Ruby, Lua, TCL
- Functional: Lisp, Haskell, ML, Erlang
- Historical: ALGOL, Pascal, Ada, Modula-2
- Esoteric: Brainf*ck, INTERCAL, Malbolge
Get Involved
Found an error? Want to contribute a language? Have suggestions?
- Open an issue on GitHub
- Submit a pull request
- Share your language knowledge
Running the Examples
Every code example on this site can be run using Docker. No need to install compilers or interpreters locally - just pull an official image and run.
All source code from our tutorials is also available in our Examples Repository on GitHub. This repository is auto-generated from the site content, giving you clean, ready-to-run code files for every language we cover.
New to Docker? Check out our Getting Started with Docker guide.