> Algol for B5000

Early in my career I wrote some Algol. So, got to love
block structured languages and adopted the style of
left margin indention then called publication Algol.

I was on the computer selection committee at FedEx, and
from what it had we were impressed with Algol, etc.
So a Burroughs system is what we recommended and got.

Alas, it was too slow. Soon the computing was way, way
behind, and Big Blue got called in and got a really
big, new account. The MVT/MVS family of operating systems,
with JCL, etc. was like an unanesthetized root canal
procedure while undergoing a barbed wire enema, but it
could get the work done.

Generally that computing is having problems with
virus is a total bummer -- we should be able to
run malicious code safely.

Gee, Flash keeps telling
me their code is a security risk. No joke! And
that's version 12 or so of their code. Flash guys,
I've got more to do than be a lab rat running on a
wheel going 'round and 'round downloading code.

Yup, looks like Flash guys or someone was correct:
I spent all of December and part of January fighting
a virus on Windows: Kept getting instances of
iexpore.exe running. Yes, that is the EXE of
Windows Internet Explorer (IE). So, I got those instances
even without starting IE. So, I ran Microsoft's latest
virus removal tools, days for each, and they found nothing.
The virus was still there. So, I did a Windows
System Restore back to the earliest copy I had, 2 months
ago. Seems to have worked. But that was about six
weeks of virus mud wrestling for no good reason.

A simple Google search shows that discussions about
fighing that
iexplore.exe problem is all over the Web;
apparently it is a very common virus.

Flash guys, are you to blame for that one?

Flash guys: Programming lesson 1 in Coding 101:
Check your input and detect any problems. If the
input is not suitably clean, then
refuse to use it. If the specifications of
your input is too complicated for a check,
at least good checks while running, then
correct your specifications. Flash guys,
I can understand one bug, but 12? Are you
guys even trying, I mean trying to fix
bugs instead of pushing users to
download?

And Microsoft guys, why do you let your code
let bad guys somewhere east of Moscow
mess up my computer? You guys just like
shipping bugs? Believe me, I do not
like fixing viruses.

As I recall, Multics was written in PL/I. Prime
had a version of PL/I and used it for much of their
operating system.

Once Google ran a recruiting ad and I sent them a
resume. I got a phone call from one of their
recruiters, and his big question was "What is your
favorite programming language?"

I said, "PL/I".

Wrong answer! Likely he was looking for C++.

Come on guy, I want to do something other than
fight memory leaks -- in PL/I if some work
is some part of my code raises an On Condition
(a software version of an interrupt, which
might also have been from a hardware interrupt),
then in the code block that gets executed by
the On Unit that has been established
for that condition, can decide what to do
with the interrupt. So, one thing to do is just
to kill off that work that raised the interrupt.
So, say that the block of the On Unit
that gets executed is X in code block B,
some code in block B did the function call
that got the work going, and just want to
kill off that work. So, from block X just
do a Goto to the statement label want
in block B and not in block X, and presto, bingo, that
work is killed off, that is, wiped clean
by the wrath of non-local Goto. So, in particular,
likely all the storage (all except based
storage) allocated by that worked to be killed
off is freed. So, look, Ma, no memory leaks
from exceptional condition handling!

Google guys: The original definition of C++
was just as a pre-processor to C. And you want
to assume that that is a lot better than
what IBM, George Radin, etc. did with PL/I?
Do you have anyone who understands PL/I?