How did they program a programming language to program a program to program a programs?

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Programming languages are typically created by humans using other programming languages. The first programming languages were created in the 1950s and were called machine languages, they were used to directly control the behavior of a computer's hardware. These machine languages were very difficult for humans to read and write, and they were not portable across different types of computers.

To overcome these limitations, higher-level programming languages were developed, such as Assembly, Fortran, and Algol. These languages were closer to natural language and were easier for humans to read and write. They also allowed for more complex programs to be written and were more portable across different types of computers.

As the field of computer science and technology progressed, more high-level and domain-specific programming languages were developed. For example, C and C++ were developed to provide low-level access to a computer's memory and resources, while Java and Python were developed for easier and more efficient software development.

Nowadays, there are many programming languages, each with its own specific purpose, such as web development, data science, game development, and many more.
To create a new programming language, a team of developers will typically use an existing programming language to write a compiler or interpreter for the new language. A compiler is a program that translates the code written in one programming language into another language. An interpreter is a program that reads and executes code written in a programming language.

In summary, programming languages are created by humans using other programming languages. The first programming languages were machine languages and now many high-level and domain-specific programming languages are developed by using an existing programming language to write a compiler or interpreter for the new language.