Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!mcsun!ukc!edcastle!dtm
From: dtm@castle.ed.ac.uk (D Muxworthy)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: *66, *68, *77, etc...
Message-ID: <1481@castle.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 28 Dec 89 11:53:56 GMT
References: <6377@wpi.wpi.edu>
Reply-To: dtm@castle.ed.ac.uk (D Muxworthy)
Organization: Edinburgh University Computing Service
Lines: 14

In article <6377@wpi.wpi.edu> jhallen@wpi.wpi.edu (Joseph H Allen) writes:
>Which was the first 'year' language?  I.E., like algol68, fortran66, and
>forth79 ?
>
>I bet it's fortran,  but what year?

The earliest I know of is Algol 58, a precursor of Algol 60.  Fortran
preceded that (specification 1954, manual 1955, software release 1957),
but when the next version appeared as Fortran II in 1958, the original
became known as Fortran I.  Fortran 66 only became known as such after
Fortran 77 had appeared.  Jean Sammett's book "Programming Langauages:
History and Fundamentals" (1969) would be the place to check up on this.
David Muxworthy
University of Edinburgh