Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!primerd!tiger1!efeustel From: efeustel@prime.com (Ed Feustel) Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc Subject: Re: Algol68 Message-ID: Date: 19 Mar 91 19:12:41 GMT References: <3787@bruce.cs.monash.OZ.AU> <1991Mar8.202516.10401@praxis.co.uk> <1991Mar11.123405.17814@bellcore.bellcore.com> <9168@castle.ed.ac.uk> Lines: 14 Nntp-Posting-Host: tiger1 For one thing, Algol68 was used to write the CAP operating system at the University of Cambridge. As I understand, only a very few lines of assembler were required to do the whole thing and it was extremely maintainable. Although the language specification in the form of the Van W... grammar was about 3/4 inch thick, the language was as regular as any you might wish to define. While it took quite a while to build quality compilers, there were quite a few on a variety of machines as attested to by the Algol68 newsletter. Marketing more than goodness propelled C to the forefront. It is hard to turn down something like C if it is for free and C was free in the academic community circa 1975. Algol68 and Ada (in the 80s) were not free. They were not generally available either. Hence C and Ada are not mainstream teaching languages today; nor for that matter is Smalltalk.