Peter Naur wins ACM Turing Award

Terry Reedy tjreedy at udel.edu
Mon Mar 6 16:14:03 EST 2006


http://campus.acm.org/public/pressroom/press_releases/3_2006/turing_3_01_2006.cfm

Peter Naur was co-developer of Backus/Naur grammar notation, co-author and 
editor of the Algol 60 specification, and co-developer of a successful 
Algol compiler.

Connection with Python: I believe Python owes more to the form and spirit 
of Algol than to any of the other early languages.  Algol introduced the 
block structuring and, at least in practice, the indentation, that is a 
hallmark of Python.  It was purposefully not tied to any particular 
architecture.  It was "designed for communication among humans as well as 
with computers" even though human readability made compiler writing more 
challenging.

Python: Algol for the 21st century?

Terry Jan Reedy






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