13 Jan
2025
13 Jan
'25
5:16 p.m.
If C were called Algol SC [Algol With Special Characters, e.g. using {
instead of BEGIN, } instead of END, &c] then there would be absolutely no
talk about "Algol vanishing off the face of the earth".
Almost all commonly used languages use Algol SC syntax. C++, Java... even
JavaScript even though JavaScript semantics are much more like LISP.
I'd say that, looking at the first three languages (LISP, FORTRAN, Algol
60), Algol won the syntax war and most of the semantics war, with LISP
semantics coming in second.
FORTRAN was a dead end, both in syntax (line-oriented, line numbers) and
semantics (common blocks, static arrays, very poor string support).
Oops, forgot COBOL. I honestly have never programmed in COBOL. But its
syntax seems dead and its semantics are now just standard formatting
libraries.
On Mon, Jan 13, 2025 at 1:31 PM Wayne S via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
wrote:
Re: “Algol seemed to vanish off the face of the earth.
“
I think the popularity of languages is due to how trendy they are to teach
in Colleges.
Witness the popularity of Python. That’s being taught in school these days.
Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 13, 2025, at 13:11, Paul Koning via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
wrote:
Algol seemed to vanish off the face of the earth.