In the last 20 years, several approaches to quantum programming have been introduced. In this survey, we focus on the QRAM (Quantum Random Access Machine) architectural model. We explore the twofold perspective (theoretical and concrete) of the approach and we list the main problems one has to face in quantum language design. Moreover, we propose an overview of some interesting languages and open-source platforms for quantum programming currently available. We also provide the higher-order encoding in the functional languages qPCF and IQu of the well known Deutsch-Jozsa and Simon’s algorithms.