15 Feb
2019
15 Feb
'19
6:08 a.m.
Almost forgot...
Born on this day in 1934, he pretty much invented ALGOL (and algorithmic
languages in general; the running joke was that you could call him by
name or by value)... From Clem Cole: "The actual joke was Europeans
called him by name ("ni-klaus vurt") and Americans by value ("nickel-less
worth").
-- Dave
15 Feb
15 Feb
6:46 a.m.
On Feb 14, 2019, at 10:08 PM, Dave Horsfall <dave(a)horsfall.org> wrote:
Almost forgot...
Born on this day in 1934, he pretty much invented ALGOL (and algorithmic languages in
general; the running joke was that you could call him by name or by value)... From Clem
Cole: "The actual joke was Europeans called him by name ("ni-klaus vurt")
and Americans by value ("nickel-less worth").
Niklaus Wirth did come up with Algol-W, based on Algol-60 but he
didn't invent Algol-58 or Algol-60 or Algol-68; though he was on
the IFIP Working Group 2.1 for Algol (IIRC, he thought Algol-68
was overly complicated).
BTW, Niklaus Wirth himself supposedly made this self-referential joke:
“Whereas Europeans generally pronounce my name the right way
(‘Nick-louse Veert’), Americans invariably mangle it into
‘Nickel’s Worth.’ This is to say that Europeans call me by
name, but Americans call me by value.”
[I haven't found a primary source for this but lots of secondary
sources and variations!]
2:13 p.m.
On 2019, Feb 15, at 1:46 AM, Bakul Shah
<bakul(a)bitblocks.com> wrote:
On Feb 14, 2019, at 10:08 PM, Dave Horsfall <dave(a)horsfall.org> wrote:
In addition to Algol-W and Pascal. Niklaus Wirth also developed Modula-2 and Oberon.
Oberon is particularly interesting because it included a language, an operating system,
and a computer. There aren’t that many folks who could build a complete environmnet from
scratch.
A good bit of the Oberon work was done by Jurg Gutknecht but it is nevertheless an
impressive achievement. In 2013, Wirth put out a rebooted system running on an FPGA.
-L
Almost forgot...
Born on this day in 1934, he pretty much invented ALGOL (and algorithmic languages in
general; the running joke was that you could call him by name or by value)... From Clem
Cole: "The actual joke was Europeans called him by name ("ni-klaus vurt")
and Americans by value ("nickel-less worth").
Niklaus Wirth did come up with Algol-W, based on Algol-60 but he
didn't invent Algol-58 or Algol-60 or Algol-68; though he was on
the IFIP Working Group 2.1 for Algol (IIRC, he thought Algol-68
was overly complicated).
BTW, Niklaus Wirth himself supposedly made this self-referential joke:
“Whereas Europeans generally pronounce my name the right way
(‘Nick-louse Veert’), Americans invariably mangle it into
‘Nickel’s Worth.’ This is to say that Europeans call me by
name, but Americans call me by value.”
[I haven't found a primary source for this but lots of secondary
sources and variations!]
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11:13 p.m.
On 15/02/2019, Lawrence Stewart <stewart(a)serissa.com> wrote (in part):
In addition to Algol-W and Pascal. Niklaus Wirth also
developed Modula-2 and
Oberon.
Oberon is particularly interesting because it included a language, an
operating system, and a computer. There aren’t that many folks who could
build a complete environmnet from scratch.
He also devised an HDL before switching to Verilog. (The original
Oberon UI influenced Pike's acme, though Pike thought Wirth was too
minimalist.)
At any rate, this page has a picture of Auld Nick (as some wags called
him) in his lab with board and helicopters:
https://www.srf.ch/radio-srf-3/digital/computer-pionier-niklaus-wirth-80-un…
(Javscript neede to display the photos.)
N.
9:17 a.m.
Pascal was his creation.
At 15 Feb 2019 06:09:01 +0000 (+00:00) from Dave Horsfall <dave(a)horsfall.org>:
Almost forgot...
Born on this day in 1934, he pretty much invented ALGOL (and algorithmic
languages in general; the running joke was that you could call him by
name or by value)... From Clem Cole: "The actual joke was Europeans
called him by name ("ni-klaus vurt") and Americans by value ("nickel-less
worth").
-- Dave
2313
days inactive
2313
days old
4 comments
5 participants
participants (5)
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Bakul Shah -
Dave Horsfall -
Donald ODona -
Lawrence Stewart -
Nemo