OT: ALGOL 60 at 60
DL Neil
PythonList at DancesWithMice.info
Sat May 16 19:26:57 EDT 2020
ALGOL 60 at 60: The greatest computer language you've never used and
grandaddy of the programming family tree
Back to the time when tape was king
By Richard Speed 15 May 2020 at 09:47
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/15/algol_60_at_60/
NB 'El Reg' is known for its irreverent and cynical views of computing,
poking-fun at every opportunity and using British-slang (which may
challenge some - one way or another).
I've often surmised reminders of ALGOL in Python. However, I had not
previously remembered the ALGOL Bulletins and their similarity to
Python's PEPs.
ALGOL was almost 'the machine language' for the Burroughs B6700 series
(and similar) but concurring with the article, we regarded it as
somewhat academic and majored in FORTRAN, COBOL, or both. (as distinct
from those who defined ComSc as compiler writing, for whom ALGOL was a
brilliant tool!)
The article also managed to elicit an "oh wow" from me, with its picture
of a drum-plotter - few today will have seen a plotter that moves the
paper as well as the pen (even if that's still the way most
'character-printers' work).
Silver-surfers of the world unite!
--
Regards,
=dn
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