Not too long ago, I re-read a book titled 'Babel-17' by a Samuel R. Delany. A good story, copyrighted in 1969.
In the book it mentioned the computer languages 'On-Off', Algol, and Fortran. On-Off has to be assembler. Or 'hard wired' program boards for the earliest computers (I've only read about them.)
Fortran I remember well and fondly. It was the first compiler I ever did battle with - about 1980 at TideWater Community College.
I had to look up Algol.
The first program most people ever write is called 'Hello World'.
This is it in Algol.
>>>
// the main program (this is a comment)
BEGIN
FILE F (KIND=REMOTE);
EBCDIC ARRAY E [0:11];
REPLACE E BY "HELLO WORLD!";
WHILE TRUE DO
BEGIN
WRITE (F, *, E);
END;
END.
>>>
And then just below it there is this : "This program has NOT been tested due to the inability to locate the necessary compiler."
And it seems Algol dates back to 1958 . . . When computers were still being invented.
(Actually, I believe the first computers were built during WWII . . . )
Zim.
Mad Poet Strikes Again.
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