Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!ukc!stl!stc!praxis!hilbert!mct From: mct@praxis.co.uk (Martyn Thomas) Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc Subject: Re: Algol-68 down for the count (was: Why have FORTRAN 8x at all?) Message-ID: <3395@newton.praxis.co.uk> Date: 28 Nov 88 12:10:51 GMT References: <388@ubbpc.UUCP> <16187@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <599@quintus.UUCP> <404@ubbpc.UUCP> <1286@X.UUCP> Sender: news@praxis.co.uk Reply-To: mct@praxis.co.uk (Martyn Thomas) Organization: Praxis Systems plc, Bath, UK Lines: 15 In article <404@ubbpc.UUCP>, wgh@ubbpc.UUCP (William G. Hutchison) writes: > The primary "benefit" that I see in your institutions' choice of Algol-68 is >that you write programs that nobody else can use, and that your students have >to do extra work learning mainstream languages after they graduate. > That sounds like a bad decision on the part of Nottingham U. Research at MC-Amsterdam by van der Meulen (if my memory is accurate) showed that learning Algol 68 greatly reduced the time to learn subsequent languages, and that if you have to learn more than two languages, starting with Algol 68 reduced the overall learning time for the other languages by more than the time taken for Algol 68. I'll post the reference if I can locate it. Martyn Thomas, Praxis plc, 20 Manvers Street, Bath BA1 1PX UK. Tel: +44-225-444700. Email: ...!uunet!mcvax!ukc!praxis!mct