ALGOL X


ALGOL X was the code name given to the programming language which the Working Group 2.1 on ALGOL of the International Federation for Information Processing was to develop as a successor to ALGOL 60. It attempted to find a "short-term solution to existing difficulties".
According to de Morgan "... the Algol 60 devotees had not been idle... they set out to eliminate the dreaded Remaining Trouble Spots. They called their Algol 60 'Modified'."
One ALGOL X compiler is known to have existed. It was written with the Automated Engineering Design system, also termed ALGOL Extended for Design, by Douglas T. Ross of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Example class definition:
class expression is constant ora variable
ora class pair is ;
Example class usage:
X; Y; Z; Q;
X := Y:= constant;
Z := Q := product, constant, constant)
"Initially the proposal for an update to Algol was Algol X, with Algol Y being the name reserved for
the corresponding metalanguage. Van Wijngaarden produced a paper for the 1963 IFIP programming language
committee, entitled “Generalized Algol,” which contained the basic concepts which were eventually
incorporated into Algol 68."

The ALGOL Bulletin on ALGOL X