Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!pilchuck!amc-gw!thebes!happym!irv
From: irv@happym.wa.com (Irving Wolfe)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: Algol, and language design
Message-ID: <19@happym.wa.com>
Date: 28 Jul 90 19:35:15 GMT
References: <1990Jul26.024449.1777@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us> <2406@l.cc.purdue.edu> <11052@netcom.UUCP> <10284@brazos.Rice.edu>
Organization: Happy Man Corp., Seattle
Lines: 25

In <10284@brazos.Rice.edu> preston@titan.rice.edu (Preston Briggs) writes:

>I looked in a book called "History of Programming Languages",
>edited by Wexelblat.  It's the proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN
>History of Programming Languages Conference, 1978.
>It's a very cool book.  

These talks are available on tape, and almost all of them are great.  I got
them years ago, and don't remember the ordering details, but ACM sells the
tapes as a set.  They are _much_ better than the Turing Award tapes, some of
which are absolutely awful (50% plugs for the speaker's and his friends'
latest books, 50% beyond comprehension except to the handful of scholars in
his field).  Apparently, the IQ, public-spiritedness, and delightful spirit of
language originators far exceed those of the "typical" top-notch computer
scientist.  

Anyway, these HOPL tapes are great, and well worth the money.  The only one 
I've heard recently was Ralph Griswold's SNOBOL tape, which enlivened one of 
my recent ferry trips to the mainland, but I remember almost all of them 
fondly.  
-- 
 Irving Wolfe    Happy Man Corp.   irv@happym.wa.com    206/463-9399 ext.101
      4410 SW Point Robinson Road,  Vashon Island, WA  98070-7399
 SOLID VALUE, the investment letter for Benj. Graham's intelligent investors
 Information (not sample) free: email patty@happym.wa.com with US mail addr.