CS 342 Lecture -*- Outline -*- * History and Goals of Algol 60 ** History (go fast) GAMM -Soc. Appl Math and Mech.- in 1955 formed committee to design universal, machine-independent, algorithmic language (fear IBM) (cf. FORTRAN, COBOL were aimed at a specific market) *** Predecessors Fortran released April 1957, but owned solely by IBM Other languages: IT - A. Perlis at Carnegie Tech (now CMU) MATHMATIC, UNICOCE on UNIVAC computers *** IAL = Algol 58 8 GAMM and ACM reps met in Zurich in 1958 to design IAL (later ALGOL) including Backus, Perlis highlights formalized concept of data type compound statements generalized arbitrary limits of FORTRAN (identifier length, array dims) procedure decls separated input from output in different lists name(input parameters) =: (output parameters) Many implementations of IAL (e.g. JOVIAL) but IBM (and SHARE) eventually decided to stick with FORTRAN ** Goals (of IAL = Algol 58, Perlis and Samelson) (paraphrased) 1. close to standard mathematical notation and readable with little explanation 2. use for description of algorithms in publications 3. machanically translatable into machine programs