Talk:ALGOL W

Everything2 link

I added the reference below, and it was removed by User:Prosfilaes with the comment "(everything2 is not appropriate as an external link)". Why is everything2 not appropriate? This article is the only detailed, first-person description of the Algol W I can find on the Internet: it is particularly useful.

• Algol W @ Everything2 An informal but detailed description of the language by a former user, with sidebars extolling Algol W over Pascal as an Educational programming language.

Yeah. I wonder that too. It must be some mistake, otherwise the editor who deleted it, should have answered you by now. It was more than a year since. I'll put it back. Said: Rursus ☺ ★ 09:12, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

Me stupid! It is there! Sorry! Said: Rursus ☺ ★ 09:13, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

I've restored this again. It was removed despite this discussion.

Location of Source or Binary of any Algol-W compiler

Can someone add a link or reference to where this any compiler for this language is still available or can be downloaded? What are/were the target CPUs/Operating systems?

NevilleDNZ 21:01, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

It wasn't a compiler; it was a programming language.--Prosfilaes 15:15, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

Also: Does anyone still have a IBM Algol-W punch card. It had reserved words coded together with ASCII in one byte. NevilleDNZ 07:56, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

aw2c

Aw2c appears to be the only compiler for the Algol W language still in existence, so it seems appropriate to link to it.

The edit that removed it stated "The link was a translator. A translator is not a compiler." "Translators" generally produce human-readable source code for programmers who intend to permanently port a program. If the only purpose of the output source code is to utilize a second compiler's object code generator, it is quite valid to use the word "compiler". Compilers that output assembly code or code for C-- or LLVM are examples. In any case, it doesn't seem right to simply remove the link.

Compilers use a syntatical parser, as well as a lexical analyzer and symbol table. Translator is a more generic term that covers compilers, but is less specific in meaning, since it also covers a broader set which includes simple text-to-text converters, assemblers, decompilers, and so on. — Loadmaster (talk) 21:36, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

There is now a reference to a scanned source listing of the OS/360 compiler Wirth wrote while at Stanford. It seems, though, that it might not be a fully debugged version. I am not quite ready to type in in and try to compile it, though. The PL/360 compiler is readily available. Gah4 (talk) 13:09, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

ALGOL or Algol?

I've changed all the occurrences of the name to "ALGOL", since the name is an acronym (for "ALGOrithmic Language") and therefore should be capitalized. Unless someone can demonstrate that certain dialects were explicitly spelled "Algol", I think we should capatialize all of the dialect names (ALGOL 60, ALGOL 68, ALGOL-W, ALGOL-X). Also notice that some of the names have dashes and some don't. It's confusing. — Loadmaster (talk) 21:30, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Widely distributed

According to the article, the Wirth compiler for the IBM S/360 was widely distributed. I have over the years searched for people who might still have one around, and not found one. Seems to me if it really was widely distributed, it wouldn't be so hard do find. Gah4 (talk) 00:25, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

External links modified

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WPCleaner recomended removing <p> tag

I rencently discovered the Java software WPCleaner, which helps in fixing various Wikipedia articles that are broken in their markup. The ALGOL W page was tagged as 2.01 - "WP:WCW project (HTML text style element <p>) Tag: WPCleaner". After making the change by removing the <p> tag, it was later revered. Jimj wpg (talk) 19:00, 17 August 2019 (UTC)

Null reference exceptions

Tony Hoare is widely quoted as saying that his introduction of null references in ALGOL-W was the "billion-dollar mistake" that created years of headache in dozens of descendant languages. This seems like possibly the most notable historical fact about the language, yet there is no mention of it here. I'm curious whether other sources can decisively back up his claim that null references were invented for ALGOL-W. Forresthopkinsa (talk) 21:53, 29 February 2024 (UTC)

It's mentioned in Tony Hoare § Research and career. Guy Harris (talk) 02:37, 2 March 2024 (UTC)