Algol vs Fortran was RE: VHDL vs Verilog

[Russ Bartlett]

A lot of the earlier application software was written in FORTRAN.  I first used it on an IBM 1620, and 1130.   FORTRAN had the weight of IBM behind it.  I'd say Algol was far more influential on the design of other languages and for that reason I think it was a better language.  Algol's I/O sucked though.    As I recall the Elliot 803 had an Algol compiler.    IBM had a lot sway on the market; FORTRAN, PL/I and RPG.   

--- On Mon, 2/8/10, Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote:

From: Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com>
Subject: Re: Algol vs Fortran was RE: VHDL vs Verilog
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Date: Monday, February 8, 2010, 6:15 PM

On 8 Feb 2010 at 14:25, Russ Bartlett wrote:

> Having used both - Algol!   Algol people viewed Fortran people pretty
> much the same way COBOL guys viewed RPG people. 

The curious thing is that the "portmanteu" languages, such as PL/I
(FORTRAN, COBOL, Algol) or Ada inevitably seem to be less popular
than the languages they were intended to supercede.

--Chuck