Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
more popular and less pretentious name ALGOL (from ALGOrithmic
Language).
In many ways, ALGOL was a remarkable achievement in the nascent
discipline of computer science. ALGOL 58 was something of a work in
progress; ALGOL 60, which was released shortly thereafter, is widely
considered to be a model of completeness and clarity. The ALGOL 60
version of the language was described using an elegant metalanguage
known as Backus Normal Form (BNF), developed specifi cally for that
purpose. BNF, which resembles the notation used by linguists and logi-
cians to describe formal languages, has since become the standard tech-
nique for representing programming languages. The elegant sophistication
of the ALGOL 60 report appealed particularly to computer scientists. In
the words of one well-respected admirer, “The language proved to be an
object of stunning beauty. . . . Nicely organized, tantalizingly incom-
plete, slightly ambiguous, diffi cult to read, consistent in format, and
brief, it was a perfect canvas for a language that possessed those same
properties. Like the Bible, it was meant not merely to be read, but inter-
preted.”
45
ALGOL 60 soon became the standard by which all subsequent
language developments were measured and evaluated.
Despite its intellectual appeal, and the enthusiasm with which it was
greeted in academic and European circles, ALGOL was never widely
adopted in the United States. Although many Americans recognized
that ALGOL was an elegant synthesis, most saw language design as
just one step in a lengthy process leading to language acceptance
and use. In addition, in the United States there were already several
strong competitors currently in development. IBM and its infl uential
users group SHARE supported FORTRAN, and business data processors
preferred COBOL. Even those installations that preferred ALGOL often
used it only as a starting point for further development, more “as a rich
set of guidelines for a language than a standard to be adhered to.”
46
Numerous dialects or spin-off languages emerged, most signifi cantly
JOVIAL, MAD, and NELIAC, developed at the SDC, the University
of Michigan, and the Naval Electronics Laboratory, respectively.
Although these languages benefi ted from ALGOL, they only detracted
from its efforts to emerge as a standard. With a few noticeable
exceptions—the ACM continued to use it as the language of choice in
its publications, for example—ALGOL was generally regarded in the
United States as an intellectual curiosity rather than a functional pro-
gramming language.
