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From: firth@sei.cmu.edu (Robert Firth)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: Algol-68 down for the count (was: Why have FORTRAN 8x at all?)
Message-ID: <7774@aw.sei.cmu.edu>
Date: 21 Nov 88 21:08:46 GMT
References: <388@ubbpc.UUCP> <16187@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <599@quintus.UUCP> <591@tuck.nott-cs.UUCP> <404@ubbpc.UUCP>
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In article <404@ubbpc.UUCP> wgh@ubbpc.UUCP (William G. Hutchison) writes:

> Andy, I now know of 2 (two) institutions that ever tried to use Algol-68 at
>all seriously, yours, and Math. Centrum in Amsterdam.
> If that is not an embarrassing debacle for a language design, what, pray tell,
>is?  Ten million computer owners elected not to use Algol-68, and (order of
>magnitude) 2 institutions chose to use it.

Please add the following institutions, all of which either used or taught
Algol-68:

	University of Oxford
	University of Cambridge
	University of London
	Royal Signals and Radar Establishment
	Royal Military College of Science

However, a better test of the language as a piece of design is the number
of key concepts it introduced.  This includes

	formal definition of static semantics using a van-Wyngaarden grammar
	fully orthogonal type system with code objects as first-class objects
	user-defined operators and operator overloading
	a clear and correct definition of coercion
	the "heap"
	array slicing in a more powerful and more well-founded manner

well, I won't run on too long, but Algol-68 has an honourable place even
in a history written by the "winners".