Questions tagged [algol]
Questions about the Algol languages: Algol 58 (IAL), Algol 60, Algol 68.
18 questions
6 votes
1 answer
345 views
Is there any extant documentation for the MTS fmt formatting program?
Turns out that the original, machine-readable markup form of the Revised Report on the Algorithmic Language Algol 68 is online, hosted by Dick Grune. It is filled with incantations and weird syntax. ...
- 3,930
2 votes
1 answer
461 views
Algol 60 inline comments in procedure statements
I'm trying to run an old Rogalgol Algol60 compiler b ut not having very much luck on Windows 10. Currently building an XP VM to see if that will work. In Algol 60, we can have a FAT COMMA or inline ...
- 3,165
16 votes
2 answers
596 views
Are there any functioning Algol 68S compilers out there?
For my sins I seem to have adopted a very old compiler suite, the Amsterdam Compiler Kit. It contains a rather bodged-together Algol 68S compiler, written in an extremely custom dialect of Pascal, ...
- 1,546
6 votes
3 answers
538 views
Are there known attempts to revive Algol-68 on PDP-11?
There was an implementation of Algol-68 on PDP-11, which is present in the form of raw binary files, allegedly from RSX-11M, and UNIX V7 loaders/adapters for them in the form of Assembly language ...
- 22.3k
3 votes
0 answers
247 views
Did any Algol 58 implementation support the “do” facility?
Algol 58 had a do statement that performed a kind of macro substitution. It is described on page 16 in the preliminary report. Even though the language was intentionally drafty and incomplete, various ...
- 3,930
13 votes
2 answers
1k views
Were there mistakes in converting Dijkstra's Algol-60 compiler to Pascal?
In his paper The Dijkstra–Zonneveld ALGOL 60 compiler for the Electrologica X1 F.E.J. Kruseman Aretz presents his attempt at reproducing the functionality of the original compiler, written in the ...
- 22.3k
4 votes
2 answers
304 views
How were strings printed in the Dijkstra-Zonneveld ALGOL 60 compiler for the Electrologica X1?
Reading the report on the first Algol 60 compiler in the world, namely the Dijkstra-Zonneveld ALGOL 60 compiler for the Electrologica X1, which contains the Pascal source faithfully reproducing its ...
- 22.3k
13 votes
2 answers
2k views
Was there an Easter egg in the Electrologica X1 QUINIO (GO-MOKU) game?
The CWI software archive on GitHub contains the Algol-60 source code for a gomoku-like game. It is runnable with your favorite Algol-60 compiler and a little elbow grease (in particular, taking the ...
- 22.3k
11 votes
6 answers
2k views
Did the Algol 68 standard allow a procedure to be called before its declaration?
In Algol 68, is it legal to say this? proc even = (int x) bool: (x = 0 | true | odd(x – 1)); proc odd = (int x) bool: (x = 0 | false | even(x – 1)); Forward references in structures are used in the ...
- 3,930
17 votes
2 answers
1k views
Can I really change standard operator priorities in ALGOL 68?
In Algol 68, I can declare the priority (precedence) of an operator-symbol: prio @ = 5; (Higher number means higher precedence). I can apparently redefine the priorities of built-in operators: ...
- 41.5k
11 votes
3 answers
2k views
How good is this random number algorithm?
What follows are the random number generation routines from an ALGOL-60 computational math library, stored on a BESM-6 disk in a text form. The character encoding was with parity, imitating a punched ...
- 22.3k
3 votes
1 answer
1k views
Why were procedure parameter specifications optional in the ALGOL 60 Revised Report?
In Algol 60 procedure declarations, the 'specification' part was optional for by-name parameters. The specification is what gives (loosely speaking) the type of parameter - whether it's real, integer,...
- 41.5k
5 votes
1 answer
387 views
Which extant ALGOL-60 compilers fully support numeric labels?
This question is prompted by a related one by texdr.aft. It turns out that the Revised report on Algol-60 allowed numeric labels (3.5.1, page 15), <label> ::= <identifier> | <unsigned ...
- 22.3k
13 votes
3 answers
1k views
How did the Burroughs B5000/B5500 provide hardware support for implementing Algol's call-by-name?
According to a 2019 presentation about Burroughs Extended Algol, the Burroughs B5000 and B5500 (and presumably their descendants) had “Hardware support for Call-by-Name (‘thunks’)”. It goes on to say ...
- 3,930
16 votes
3 answers
2k views
What is the story behind 'goto' vs 'go' 'to' in ALGOL-60?
Preamble As Algol-60 had no reserved words, the language keywords had to be specially marked, e.g. prefixed with an underscore with a trailing space or semicolon (_begin _integer i;i:=42_end), or ...
- 22.3k