Path: csiph.com!weretis.net!feeder6.news.weretis.net!feeder.usenetexpress.com!feeder-in1.iad1.usenetexpress.com!border1.nntp.dca1.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!news.iecc.com!.POSTED.news.iecc.com!nerds-end From: albert@cherry.spenarnc.xs4all.nl (Albert van der Horst) Newsgroups: comp.compilers Subject: Re: language design after Algol 60, was Add nested-function support Date: Sat, 5 May 2018 13:50:51 +0200 (CEST) Organization: A poorly-installed InterNetNews site Lines: 41 Sender: news@iecc.com Approved: comp.compilers@iecc.com Message-ID: <18-05-003@comp.compilers> References: <49854345-f940-e82a-5c35-35078c4189d5@gkc.org.uk> <18-03-079@comp.compilers> <18-03-101@comp.compilers> <18-04-002@comp.compilers> Injection-Info: gal.iecc.com; posting-host="news.iecc.com:2001:470:1f07:1126:0:676f:7373:6970"; logging-data="50561"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@iecc.com" Keywords: history, design, algol68 Posted-Date: 05 May 2018 09:24:19 EDT X-submission-address: compilers@iecc.com X-moderator-address: compilers-request@iecc.com X-FAQ-and-archives: http://compilers.iecc.com Xref: csiph.com comp.compilers:2091 In article <18-04-002@comp.compilers>, Martin Ward wrote: >On 30/03/18 15:20, Anton Ertl wrote: >>> The theory is that "the attitude of the Algol 60 designers towards >>> language design is what led to these innovations appearing". >>> Clearly, this "attitude" was present before, during and after >>> the development of Algol 60. >> Ok, so this theory cannot even be verified of falsified for the >> features that came before Algol 60. > >John asked us to speculate what might have happened differently, >not produce empirically verifiable theories :-) > >I came across this quote the other day, which suggests that the change >in attitude had already started by 1979: > >"The call-by-name mechanism is so expensive that modern languages >have mostly dropped it in favour of the semantically different, >but operationally more efficient, call-by-reference" >--"Understanding and Writing Compilers", Richard Bornat, Macmillan 1979. Earlier. Algol 68 already moved to call by reference. I paraphrase from page 182 183 Informal introduction to Algol68 (Lindsey / van der Meulen) " Algol 60 had something called Jensen's devise, using (or misusing) call-by-name. In algol 68 we use references only. " Then they give an example of how the effect of call-by-name of e.g. a real can be had by using a procedure that returns a a real. Basically a call-by-name is a procedure where the input parameters are obsured, as viewed from the algol 68 perspective. Groetjes Albert -- Albert van der Horst, UTRECHT,THE NETHERLANDS Economic growth -- being exponential -- ultimately falters. albert@spe&ar&c.xs4all.nl &=n http://home.hccnet.nl/a.w.m.van.der.horst