Talk: ALGOL
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The Algo programming language? When has it ever been called that? Are you sure you don't mean the "Algol programming language"? -- JanHidders
There is no programming language Algo. I am sure it is a typo. Have moved page. Will attempt to fix references now. Of course, you'll never find _this_ page (/Talk) except by looking at Recent Changes now... :) --drj
Actualy, there is a programming language Algo. It was an algebraic language loosely modeled on ALGOL 58 and released in the early 1960's by Bendix for their G-15. I plan to put in a complete article Real Soon Now. --User:DJBrantley
- Good to know. I had the old Algo page marked for deletion. Is there any paper about Algo on the ACM library? — danakil 21:34, Sep 13, 2004 (UTC)
I just removed this text, added by User:216.186.53.2:
- This is also a pun on the latin word algol, meaning pain, since programming is a painful process.
Probably just a joke, but might be legit. Does anyone know if algol is Latin for "pain"? If so, does anyone know if this influenced the choice of name? Couldn't find anything on Google. Tualha 23:48, 15 Dec 2003 (UTC)
I don't believe it influenced the choice of name. Never heard that stated during the period when Algol was popular. I agree the reference should be removed. Geoff97 08:44, 16 Dec 2003 (UTC)
- Never heard of that one, it's simply short form of "ALGOrithmic Language". --Palapala 17:25, 2004 Mar 9 (UTC)
- Algos is a Greek word for pain (verb algeO, to suffer), from which we get the word analgesic. Algol is not Latin or Greek at all, but rather that other classical language, Arabic: al-ghul, meaning the demon — or, transliterated, the ghoul. —FOo 18:00, 12 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Algol vs ALGOL (all-caps)
Don't want to start an edit war, but surely the name of the language was always in all-caps during the time when it was an important language? I bow to those who say that "Lisp" is now normally in mixed-case but I think the articles on these languages should state and document the proper capitalization of the languages and the date when the capitalization changed officially (if it changed officially) or the approximate time of transition in usage (if the change was informal). Dpbsmith 14:15, 9 Mar 2004 (UTC) Cursory googling convinces me it was indeed ALGOL, all-caps. I'll leave this here for a while, and if nobody responds I'll change it to all-caps eventually. Dpbsmith 14:17, 9 Mar 2004 (UTC)
- No need to quarrel - it's definitively all-caps; I should know, I grew up with it (I'm an old hand :) --Palapala 17:15, 2004 Mar 9 (UTC)
- Given that the two references in the External Links (including the one to ALGOL 68) give it in all-caps, and given that Rosen's 1967 "Programming Systems and Languages" includes the ALGOL 60 report which gives it in all caps, I'm going to go ahead. Dpbsmith 23:04, 9 Mar 2004 (UTC)
- It is of little interest to me, but the articles for the specific dialects of ALGOL are all in lowercase. One convention should be standardized throughout the encyclopedia. --Prosfilaes 01:17, 31 May 2004 (UTC)
- Given that the two references in the External Links (including the one to ALGOL 68) give it in all-caps, and given that Rosen's 1967 "Programming Systems and Languages" includes the ALGOL 60 report which gives it in all caps, I'm going to go ahead. Dpbsmith 23:04, 9 Mar 2004 (UTC)
- Algol W. Looking at the articles I have copies of from that time, Algol (in small caps) is most common in running text, but ALGOL and Algol both appear. The TeX version of the Revised Report on the Algorithmic Language Algol 60 clearly uses the lowercase form. I don't have an original, so I don't know how authentic that is. The original Algol material I have usually uses capitals in the title and small caps in the text. One of the references sited in Knuth's article uses Algol in the title, whereas the others use ALGOL.
Still vital
The language is still in use today; for example, in its 5th decade, ALGOL is still used to calculate the brix in the manufacture of orange juice, for example, by certain corporations, on the East Coast of the US. Ancheta Wis 18:34, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)
