Version 3 of Algol

Updated 2004-04-04 22:11:09

A computing language [L1 ] in the ancestry of nearly all others, but with little discernable direct relation to Tcl.

Algol has

  • block structure with nested scopes
  • dynamic memory allocation
  • call by name parameter passing
  • call by value parameter passing
  • recursion

Algol does not have

  • record structures
  • case or switch statements
  • standard input/output statements

Algol is not in the ancestry of Fortran (at least the early versions), LISP, or Cobol.


But Algol is in the ancestry of C, and the list of things above that Algol "has" is a strong subset of the things that make C what it is. So I think the relation to Tcl is discernable after all.


Category Glossary