Language change and code breaks

[Guido van Rossum]

piet at cs.uu.nl writes:

> I wrote several parts of the CDC Cyber Algol 68 compiler (and later also an
> Algol 60 compiler) and we just moved the address of the following
> instruction to the stack (`manually') and then jumped to the procedure
> address. And of course we used 12 bit characters and the language was
> case-sensitive.

Our lives touched!  I used that Algol 68 compiler.  It also (very
indirectly) affected Python: that compiler had a very strong worldview
of its own that often didn't match that of other languages and tools
on the system, and that made it hard to mix tools.  I found this a
nuisance (ABC had the same nuisance even stronger), and when I
designed Python, one of my requirements was that it blend in with its
environment.  This explains why Python extensions are so useful.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)