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From: Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net>
Newsgroups: comp.compilers
Subject: Re: language design after Algol 60
Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2018 16:12:10 -0700
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On Tue, 17 Apr 2018 19:08:57 +1000, Our Esteemed Moderator wrote:

[snip]

>[BTW, the current specification of Fortran is longer than that of PL/I.]
>
>[Perhaps he meant that it was impossible for *him* to master the language.
>It does have some odd rough edges, e.g., give or take my recollection of
>the syntax:
>
>  DCL (A,B,C) CHAR(3);
>  A = '123';
>  B = '456';
>  C = A+B;
>
>What does C contain?  Answer: three spaces. -John]

     There was an even weirder PL/I one that I tried to find but can
not.  As I recall, it was five implicit conversions that ended up with
a value opposite to the starting value.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko