Re: specifying semantics, was Formatting of Language LRMs

From	Ivan Godard <ivan@ootbcomp.com>
Newsgroups	comp.compilers
Subject	Re: specifying semantics, was Formatting of Language LRMs
Date	2014-06-30 20:53 -0700
Organization	A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID	<14-07-001@comp.compilers> (permalink)
References	(2 earlier) <14-06-025@comp.compilers> <14-06-027@comp.compilers> <14-06-030@comp.compilers> <14-06-031@comp.compilers> <14-06-035@comp.compilers>

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On 6/30/2014 6:09 PM, Gene Wirchenko wrote:
> On Sun, 29 Jun 2014 11:49:00 -0700, Ivan Godard <ivan@ootbcomp.com>
> wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
>> BTW, I'm talking about the VWG in the *Revised* Report, which different
>> somewhat from that in the original report before the Great Schism.
>                                                        ^^^^^^^^^^^^
>       What was this, please?

When Algol68 was revised, there was a major split in the committee as
to the merits of the proposed changes, and even more about the use of
VWG as a language notation. The majority accepted the proposal, and
their work became the Revised Report and their spiritual descendant
populate IFIPS WG2.1 (Algol) to this day.

The minority, which included a number of luminaries such as Wirth and
Dijkstra, resigned from WG2.1, wrote scathingly about the Algol68
language, and formed a rump group that became WG2.3, which also
survives. Philosophically they wished to return to (a slightly cleaned
up) Algol 60; the linguistic descendants include Pascal and Ada.

These events, known as the Great Schism, occurred slightly before I
arrived. I attended a few meetings of both WG2.1 and WG2.3 and found
the character of the two groups very different: WG2.1 had a youthful
enthusiastic, and creative feel to it, while WG2.3 seemed to be
sourpuss, political, and puffed-up: an air of offense that someone
should enter the rarefied academe without proper obeisance. That was
my feeling; others no doubt would have felt differently, and in
fairness there were many of the participants who were every bit as
welcoming as any in WG2.1. BTAIM, I quit going to WG2.3, and
eventually was honored with my name in the Revised Report.

I went on to be a founder of the next Working Group in sequence
(WG2.4, then titled Machine-Oriented Languages). Despite staying
mostly in industry, I have since encountered that WG2.3 priesthood
"feel" in some (but mercifully few) other contexts, even as recently
as this year. I suspect readers have encountered the like.

Thread

Formatting of Language LRMs Seima Rao <seimarao@gmail.com> - 2014-06-17 16:54 +0530
  Re: Formatting of Language LRMs "lpsantil@gmail.com" <lpsantil@gmail.com> - 2014-06-20 10:10 -0700
    Re: Formatting of Language LRMs glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu> - 2014-08-03 04:37 +0000
  Re: Formatting of Language LRMs Ivan Godard <ivan@ootbcomp.com> - 2014-06-20 12:09 -0700
    Re: Formatting of Language LRMs glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu> - 2014-06-21 02:27 +0000
    Re: Formatting of Language LRMs Kaz Kylheku <kaz@kylheku.com> - 2014-06-21 03:09 +0000
    Re: Formatting of Language LRMs Joshua Cranmer 🐧 <Pidgeot18@verizon.net.invalid> - 2014-06-22 21:12 -0500
      Re: VWG and K, was Formatting of Language LRMs Ivan Godard <ivan@ootbcomp.com> - 2014-06-22 21:47 -0700
      RE: Formatting of Language LRMs "Costello, Roger L." <costello@mitre.org> - 2014-07-03 09:06 +0000
        Re: Formatting of Language LRMs Ivan Godard <ivan@ootbcomp.com> - 2014-07-03 22:30 -0700
          Re: syntax checkers, was Formatting of Language LRMs glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu> - 2014-07-04 17:35 +0000
          Re: executable semantics, was Formatting of Language LRMs wclodius@earthlink.net (William Clodius) - 2014-07-04 15:53 -0600
  Re: specifying semantics, was Formatting of Language LRMs seimarao@gmail.com - 2014-06-24 02:19 -0700
    Re: specifying semantics, was Formatting of Language LRMs "lpsantil@gmail.com" <lpsantil@gmail.com> - 2014-06-24 13:12 -0700
    Re: specifying semantics, was Formatting of Language LRMs George Neuner <gneuner2@comcast.net> - 2014-06-26 00:54 -0400
      Re: specifying semantics, was Formatting of Language LRMs Andy Walker <news@cuboid.co.uk> - 2014-06-28 20:10 +0100
        Re: specifying semantics, was Formatting of Language LRMs George Neuner <gneuner2@comcast.net> - 2014-06-28 22:43 -0400
          Re: BNF, was specifying semantics wclodius@earthlink.net (William Clodius) - 2014-06-30 22:00 -0600
      Re: specifying semantics, was Formatting of Language LRMs Ivan Godard <ivan@ootbcomp.com> - 2014-06-28 12:25 -0700
        Re: specifying semantics, was Formatting of Language LRMs Andy Walker <news@cuboid.co.uk> - 2014-06-29 11:19 +0100
        Re: specifying semantics, was Formatting of Language LRMs George Neuner <gneuner2@comcast.net> - 2014-06-29 07:56 -0400
          Re: specifying semantics, was Formatting of Language LRMs Ivan Godard <ivan@ootbcomp.com> - 2014-06-29 11:49 -0700
            Re: specifying semantics, was Formatting of Language LRMs Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net> - 2014-06-30 18:09 -0700
              Re: specifying semantics, was Formatting of Language LRMs Ivan Godard <ivan@ootbcomp.com> - 2014-06-30 20:53 -0700
                Re: Algol history, was specifying semantics anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2014-07-03 11:51 +0000
                Re: Algol history, was specifying semantics Ivan Godard <ivan@ootbcomp.com> - 2014-07-03 22:20 -0700
                Re: Algol history, was specifying semantics wclodius@earthlink.net (William Clodius) - 2014-07-04 15:52 -0600
                Re: Algol history, was specifying semantics glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu> - 2014-07-07 05:49 +0000
                Re: Algol history, was specifying semantics Ivan Godard <ivan@ootbcomp.com> - 2014-07-07 10:48 -0700
                Re: Algol history, was specifying semantics glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu> - 2014-07-07 19:49 +0000
                Re: Algol history, was specifying semantics glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu> - 2014-07-07 19:43 +0000
                Re: specifying semantics, was Formatting of Language LRMs Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net> - 2014-07-03 21:44 -0700
            Re: specifying semantics, was Formatting of Language LRMs anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2014-07-02 09:51 +0000
              Re: specifying semantics, was Formatting of Language LRMs Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> - 2014-07-03 10:15 -0400
                Re: specifying semantics, was Formatting of Language LRMs glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu> - 2014-07-04 06:08 +0000
                Re: specifying semantics, was Formatting of Language LRMs Hans-Peter Diettrich <DrDiettrich1@aol.com> - 2014-07-04 08:51 +0200
                Re: Parsing Fortran, was specifying semantics glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu> - 2014-07-04 17:53 +0000
                Re: Parsing Fortran, was specifying semantics wclodius@earthlink.net (William Clodius) - 2014-07-04 15:57 -0600
  Re: Formatting of Language LRMs mertesthomas@gmail.com - 2014-06-30 12:04 -0700
  Re: Formatting of Language LRMs federation2005@netzero.com - 2014-07-28 17:55 -0700
    Re: Formatting of Language LRMs federation2005@netzero.com - 2014-08-01 14:58 -0700

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