The History of the ALGOL Effort

Dear reader,


this month I have completed my Master thesis in Computer Science and
Engineering about the history of the ALGOL effort. In this thesis I
argue that the ALGOL effort was the catalyst to the transformation of
the field of compiler writing from a craftsmanship into a science in
the early 1960s. The history of the ALGOL effort is told, starting
with the computational context of the 1950s when the ALGOL effort was
initiated. Second, the development from IAL (ALGOL 58) to ALGOL 60 and
the role the BNF played in this development are discussed. Third, the
translation of ALGOL 60 and the establishment of the scientific field
of translator writing are treated. Finally, the period of ALGOL 60
maintenance and the subsequent period of creating a successor to ALGOL
60 are described.


People who are interested can download the thesis as a pdf file at
http://www.heerdebeer.org/ALGOL/The_History_of_ALGOL.pdf (1.1 megabytes) or
read the summary at http://www.heerdebeer.org/ALGOL/ .


I post this here because a) I think there may be people here interested in
the early years of the field of compiler writing, and b) the more
appropriate newsgroup, comp.lang.algol, appeared to be dead,


--
HT de Beer
H.T.de.Beer@gmail.com
.

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