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.

History

ALGOL was developed jointly by a committee of European and American computer scientists. It specified three different syntaxes: a reference syntax, a publication syntax, and an implementation syntax. The different syntaxes permitted it to use different keyword names and conventions for decimal points (commas vs. periods) for different languages.

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John Backus developed the Backus normal form method of describing programming languages specifically for ALGOL 58. It was revised and expanded by Peter Naur to the Backus-Naur form for ALGOL 60. Both John Backus and Peter Naur served on the committee which created ALGOL 60, as did Wally Feurzeig who later created Logo. ALGOL 60 inspired many languages that followed it; the canonical quote in this regard is C.A.R. Hoare's "ALGOL 60 was a great improvement on its successors." The full quote is "Here is a language so far ahead of its time, that it was not only an improvement on its predecessors, but also on nearly all its successors", but the aphoristic version is far better known. It is sometimes erroneously attributed to Edsger Dijkstra, also known for his pointed comments, who helped to implement an early ALGOL 60 compiler. (This statement was in part a criticism of the bloatedness of ALGOL 68.)

Related Topics:
John Backus - Backus normal form - Peter Naur - Backus-Naur form - Wally Feurzeig - Logo - C.A.R. Hoare - Edsger Dijkstra - Compiler

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The Burroughs Corporation's B5000 and its successors were stack machines designed to be programmed in an extended variant of ALGOL 60, known as Elliott ALGOL; indeed their operating system, or MCP (Master Control Program) as they are called, was written in Elliott ALGOL as far back as 1961. The Unisys Corporation still markets machines descended from the B5000 today, running the MCP and supporting a diverse set of Elliott ALGOL compilers. Another early implementation was Dartmouth ALGOL 30 on the LGP-30 computer.

Related Topics:
Burroughs Corporation - B5000 - Stack machine - Elliott ALGOL - Operating system - Unisys Corporation - Dartmouth ALGOL 30 - LGP-30

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