Edsger Dijkstra

摘要

The Algol 60 report is an example of how to define a programming language, in particular its syntax. Within seven months of its publication, Dijkstra and a colleague, Jaap Zonneveld, had completed a compiler for virtually all of Algol 60, despite the fact that language had many highly novel features, and great generality. (For example, it had recursive procedures, hierarchical name scoping, multidimensional arrays whose size could depend on input calculations, powerful parameter passing mechanisms, etc. - facilities far exceeding in generality and elegance those of the two main languages that predated it, Fortran and Cobol.) Indeed, Dijkstra and his colleague produced their compiler at a time when no one on the committee had yet figured out how to compile the language whose facilities they had just approved.