CSvax:cak (10/22/82)
I have heard it said many times that any computer scientist worth his salt should take a swipe at understanding Algol68. This is all well and good, except: o There don't seem to be any working a68 compilers around for people to play with (at least not on Unix, unless they're hiding somewhere). o There don't seem to be any well-known (to me, at least) texts on the language, and all the original papers are pretty old and not in many libraries; besides which, where do you start looking? Sigplan notices in Fall of 66? So, my query is: does anyone know of a good a68 text? Can you point me at a compiler? Can you point me at the original articles? Umm, thanks in advance (isn't that how it goes?). Cheers, chris
laurir@sri-unix (10/23/82)
Among Algol 68'ers, the definitive book is "Informal Introduction to Algol 68 (revised)", by C. H. Lindsey and S. G. van der Meulen, from North-Holland Publishing Company. This is the tutorial which is officially sanctioned by the language designers. There's also a language definition, the "Revised Report", but for practical purposes it's unreadable. You can get this in paperback cheap. Be sure to get the *revised* book; the non-revised one describes a dead language.