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Writing software in ALGOL
Author(s) -
Brown P. J.
Publication year - 1974
Publication title -
software: practice and experience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.437
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1097-024X
pISSN - 0038-0644
DOI - 10.1002/spe.4380040206
Subject(s) - wonder , computer science , software , skepticism , world wide web , programming language , philosophy , epistemology
For many years the Burroughs Corporation has been writing software in ALGOL. Those of us who have no direct access to Burroughs hardware have always regarded this with interest, perhaps with envy. Nevertheless most of us have been just a little sceptical, as witnessed by the fact that, until recently, few have followed or imitated Burroughs' example. Outsiders have their doubts about efficiency and wonder about such questions as: Is it really ALGOL? Is the technique oriented to a particular type of hardware? Are there some machine‐language ‘fiddles’? This paper is simply a description of a personal software experience. Recently I had an opportunity to spend some time as a user of a Burroughs B6700, and to write some software for it in ALGOL. This article combines a tutorial introduction with a personal evaluation.