Talk:ALGOL

message: The language is still in use today; for example, in its 5th decade, ALGOL is still used to calculate the brix in the manufacture of orange juice, for example, by certain corporations, on the East Coast of the US. Ancheta Wis 18:34, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: Still vital

message: I've got a few more examples of ALGOL 60 programs written for the Elliott 803.  If any one is interested I'll add some.  I've also got the original 803 ALGOL 60 compiler (co-written by C.A.R. Hoare) running on an 803 emulator.
PeterO 22:40, 4 October 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  More Examples ? 

message: An alternative example, using Elliott Algol I/O is as follows. In fact, Elliott Algol used different characters for 'open-string-quote' and 'close-string-quote', but ASCII does not allow these to be shown here.
Are these characters now available in the Unicode characterset? In that case we could fix the example.
Kim Bruning 13:01, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: We certainly could use proper quotes like “quote” which I suspect should match the Elliott characters.--Prosfilaes 01:55, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

text: the "lower ten" has been proposedunder the name DECIMAL EXPONENT SYMBOL (see ) and accepted for (the yet unreleased) unicode 5.2 as (Ammendment 6, with currently unofficial codepoint 23E8 as shown in this draft:  ).  Frédéric Grosshans (talk) 17:44, 14 April 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Are the Elliot algol characters available in Unicode? 

message: The proper noun, "Turing" in the "True ALGOL 60s specification and implementation timeline" table currently points to a disambiguation page. I'd like to improve the wikification here, but I don't know what the "the famous Turing lecture" is. So, two things: (1) "famous" might be an inaccurate adjective for the "Turing lecture" (I have a degree in Computer Engineering and I haven't heard about it before now) and (2) "Turing" needs to point to something somehow related to this lecture. Any advice? --InformationalAnarchist 15:31, 5 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: There is but one Turing in computer science; that is, Alan Turing.--Prosfilaes 15:44, 5 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: True, but there also is but one Turing Lecture, which is the one given by the recipient of the Turing Award. Presented by the ACM, the Turing Award is sometimes described as the Nobel Prize of Computer Science -- a somewhat hyperbolic description but not totally unapt, as the current award is $250,000. There should be more information on acm.org if it's not on WP. The WP page on C A R Hoare has some info (and some of that page is copied from http://awards.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=4622167&srt=all&aw=140&ao=AMTURING, whether legally I'm not sure). There's also a WP page on the Turing Award. The text is available on the ACM web site, but only with a Digital Library subscription AFAIK. The note in the article could use a link to the Turing Award page and/or the Hoare page, but I don't see any need for any other change. I don't have time to do it right now. (I had the privilege of attending this lecture, though I have to admit that I no longer remember much from it.)--Paleolith (talk) 04:07, 13 February 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Subject of the famous Turing lecture" 

message: Removed "Of these, ALGOL 60 was the most widely known in the United States". —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 86.138.228.61 (talk) 07:49, 1 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I doubt it was an intentional attempt.  ~a (user • talk • contribs) 22:33, 2 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree. It seems that many Americans do this sort of thing without thinking. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 86.138.228.61 (talk) 18:44, 9 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Many non-Americans have your anti-American complex.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.14.189.78 (talk) 19:37, 2 July 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Yet another attempt to make everything US centric in this international encyclopaedia! 

message: My proposal is:
* this ALGOL page should contain a summary of the chief innovations as Algol evolved through its various versions.
** include a brief timeline of the decendents. Algol 58,60,X,Y,68,M,W, Pascal etc etc
* Move Algol 60 specific details to a Algol 60 specific page
** on Algol 60 page: add a more details descriptions of the ALGOL 60 implementations and features.
I am hoping that someone can work with me on this and help point out chief Algol version innovations.
NevilleDNZ 09:01, 1 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Propose brief timeline of innovations in Algol 58,60,X,Y,68,M,W & specific ALGOL 60 page 

message: Does anyone have a copy from which they can scan the ALGOL 60 cover page?
NevilleDNZ 09:04, 1 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Maybe, but such an image would be an unfree image (covered by copyright) so it wouldn't be of use to Wikipedia. Paul Koning 14:45, 10 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Front cover of the ALGOL 60 Final Report 

message: From: http://www.devprotalk.com/t666-humor-shooting-yourself-in-the-foot.html
* 6502: You shoot yourself in the foot.
* 8086: You foot yourself in the shoot.
* 68000: You can't decide which gun and which bullet to use, so you hang yourself.
* ALGOL 58/IAL: You shoot yourself in the foot with a musket. The musket is aesthetically fascinating, and the wound baffles the adolescent medic in the emergency room.
* ALGOL 60: You spend hours trying to figure out how to fire the gun since it doesn't have any provision for input or output.
* ALGOL 68: You mildly deprocedure the gun, the bullet gets firmly dereferenced, and your foot is strongly coerced to void. 
An implementation: Algol 68 - Parallel processing
NevilleDNZ 12:26, 17 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Humor 

message: Someone proposed that ALGOL object code merged to ALGOL!? Who!? Why!? ... OK, I can say: I think it's a good idea, since I believe that ALGOL object code never was an independent concept discussed in any other context than the ALGOL language, but that is what I believe, I'm not old enough to have been in  actual contact with ALGOL except one University laboration in the then still not deceased Simula. Said: Rursus ☺ ★ 08:58, 28 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: ALGOL object code – merger??

message: HERE. It is a true and valid Algol-60, since it implements name parameters and the thunking required for Jensen's device to work. From 1990. Said: Rursus ☺ ★ 09:39, 18 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: An Algol-60 interpreter

message: I reinserted Simula in the Algol list. It's a true and faithful Algol 60, despite it's name. It has much more, true, but that is related in C++ and Simula. Said: Rursus ☺ ★ 09:12, 21 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Reinsert Simula in Algol list

message: Someone posting anonymously removed the sentence "Note: Throughout its effective life, the name of the programming language ALGOL was always presented in all-uppercase letters, and this is the practice adopted here." Since no reason was given, I undid the removal. If someone has a reason to remove the sentence, please give a reason -- I'm not defending the text, just saying that I don't see any reason to delete it and that no reason was given.--Paleolith (talk) 22:07, 7 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks for restoring this. It turns out to be false. I have added a real Note citing sources that show both Algol and ALGOL are used. --Jtir (talk) 23:21, 7 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  undid random (?) anonymous edit about name 

message: I see no mention of (UK) ICT/ICL 1900-series Algol, mid-60s.  I have a manual for it, price 12/6.
Nor of EE/EELM/Elliott? 4100 Algol.
There was Algol for the Elliott 903/905.
There was also, from Oxford, an Algol for the PDP/LSI-11, after mid-70s; the language system was written in a subset of Algol, and the subset compiler could compile itself and the full compiler (the machine was too small for the full copiler to compile itself).  For compiler read interpreter? 
82.163.24.100 (talk) 13:33, 4 February 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Reworked the table, removing the blank column, adding the most successful implementations and removing EMIDEC as it essentially had no info. 74.78.162.229 (talk) 20:27, 5 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  True ALGOL 60s specification and implementation timeline 

message: In the History section it says "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.".
Would it not be better to say something like "It specified the syntax of the language but allowed for differing representations of that syntax imposed by the limited character sets available at the time"?
There is only one syntax of the reference language. All else is just a representation of that syntax, surely?
86.152.116.59 (talk) 14:09, 29 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Syntax vs. Representation? 

message: While translating and editing an article on the Olivetti Elea , I ran across references to their Algol-derived language apparently called "Palgol" or "Palgo" (sources differ), some time before Olivetti left the mainframe business. If this existed and was an Algol language, it perhaps should be documetned and added to the table. --Wtshymanski (talk) 20:22, 21 June 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Olivetti Algol derivative

message: Shouldn't be mentioned in page header that Algol was influenced by FORTRAN ?
At least there is sentence "Algol was designed to avoid some of the perceived problems with FORTRAN" - this clearly shows to me that Algol was built upon the foundation of FORTRAN.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.32.222.96 (talk) 21:16, 18 December 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Influenced by ? 

message: Section should probably mention the "back arrow" character used for assignment by Burroughs (looked something like <- ).  This character was replaced by underscore on many terminals. Peter Flass (talk) 11:59, 24 May 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  special characters: backarrow 

message: Th Regnecentralen implementation was for the Gier computer - Geodetisk Instituts Elektron Regnemaskine. A large number of Giers were sold in Eastern Europe in the 1960s and 1970s (when American companies were not allowed to sell there), and the solid Algol implementation was one of its important selling points.
Don Wagner  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.106.240.125 (talk) 14:31, 1 February 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Regnecentralen implementation 

message: Pretty sure it's algorithmic not algebraic, but not gonna put any time into it. I've always said and will continue to say ALGOrithmic. Lycurgus (talk) 19:29, 19 May 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: ALGOL or IAL?  It was going to be Algebraic (and thus IAL) but this was never used and so the name actually used was Algorithmic, thus ALGOL. There was never an I-Algorithmic-L. Andy Dingley (talk) 19:48, 19 May 2015 (UTC)

text: Preliminary report: international algebraic language --Northernhenge (talk) 22:15, 19 May 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes and no. Confirmed that the CACM article says Algebraic in the title but after that it only refers to "algorithmic language". In fact, "International Algorithmic Language" was the common usage as for instance in "JOVIAL". But I do see that 'Algebraic' was commonly used including in Schwartz's paper on Jovial. Now know that Algebraic is formally correct. Lycurgus (talk) 16:38, 21 May 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  IAL 

message: This part of the lede really needs a reference:
This is because ALGOL influenced so many languages after it, including C and Pascal. However, Fortran is still in common use in scientific computing; COBOL is also still used for mainframe applications (although I doubt that many new applications are written in it); Lisp variants have revivals every so often.
I don't see the claim in the source for the previous section either, though I may have missed it in skimming the text. In fact, that source even quotes Reynolds as saying that the Pascal family is not ALGOL-like, and neither is ALGOL 68, with which the lede concurs when it states that 'in general "Algol" means Algol 60 and dialects thereof'. QVVERTYVS (hm?) 07:57, 13 August 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Most successful? 

message: Oh, my god does this article suck. It contains virtually no detail about constructs in the language, then it launches into a follow on, Algol 68, which was completely different than original Algol and was a complete failure besides.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:646:8A02:7201:99A8:929F:905E:BC9C (talk) 02:01, 27 December 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: This article is about the Algol family. Members of the family have their own articles so to read about "original Algol" see ALGOL 58 or ALGOL 60 depending on which one you mean. Perhaps the lede needs to be clarified to make the purpose of this particular article more explicit. Certainly the second paragraph needs some work. I can see that "It was arguably the most successful of the four high-level programming languages" could certainly lead to confusion about the purpose of this article. --Northernhenge (talk) 17:01, 27 December 2015 (UTC)

text: I've just re-read paragraph 2 and IMHO it should be deleted or moved further down the article but I won't do that without consensus, especially as it's many years since I studied this. --Northernhenge (talk) 17:05, 27 December 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Problems with this article 

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