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Introduction to Algol

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Those who remember how to write an ALGOL program are a dying breed -- literally. However, apart from nostalgia, there are several good reasons why someone interested in the history of computing might collect this slim volume.

The designers of ALGOL were the first to design a compiler specification using the now-familiar BNF syntax. Formal specification grew out of the desire to prove the correctness of computer programs. But more importantly in this case, it also separated the design of a computer language from its implementation as a compiler. Thus, it paved the way for compatible compilers running on different hardware.

Two of this book's four authors -- Bauer and Samelson -- served on the committee that designed the ALGOL language. Another committee member, John Backus, is remembered both as the architect of FORTRAN, ALGOL's "predecessor", and as one of the creators of BNF. Other committee members included John McCarthy, Peter Naur, and Alan Perlis -- all later recipients of the ACM Turing Award.

The authors' stated intent was to provide a tutorial for ALGOL, a companion and supplement to the ALGOL committee's "Revised Report on the Algorithmic Language ALGOL 60". That report, included as an appendix in the book, contains both the definition of the language and a short history of the drafting process that led up to it.

Even though ALGOL never equaled FORTRAN's popularity in the US, it was an important tool in Europe and for the beginnings of academic computer science. From the end of World War II until the mid-1960s, the computing literature was mainly published in scholarly journals and trade publications rather than in book form. Early participants in the field were almost all "immigrants" from other academic specialties and much of the scholarly output appeared in mathematics, engineering and physical science journals. This book stands as an early product of computer programming's shift from craft to academic discipline.