Algol

ALGOL (short for ALGOrithmic Language) is a family of imperative computer programming languages originally developed in the mid 1950s which became the de facto standard way to report algorithms in print for almost the next 30 years. It was designed to avoid some of the perceived problems with FORTRAN and eventually gave rise to many other programming languages (including Pascal). ALGOL uses bracketed statement blocks and was the first language to use begin end pairs for delimiting them. Fragments of ALGOL-like syntax are sometimes still used as a notation for algorithms, so-called Pidgin Algol.

External links

• A BNF syntax summary of ALGOL 60
• "The Emperor's Old Clothes" -- Hoare's 1980 ACM Turing Award speech, which discusses ALGOL history and his involvement
• "803 ALGOL" The manual for Elliott 803 ALGOL.