Grandfather of Smalltalk gets Turing Award [ACM Announces 2005 A.M. Turing Award Winner]

List,

as you can see from the below, a grandfather of Smalltalk (Peter Naur:  
Algol, Backus-Naur-Form BNF) receives the 2005 Turing award.

Q: anybody else besides Jecel and me who have used Algol ? :)

/Klaus

------- Forwarded message -------
From: ACMBulletin <[hidden email]>
To: [hidden email]
Cc:
Subject: ACM Announces 2005 A.M. Turing Award Winner
Date: Thu, 02 Mar 2006 17:26:48 +0100

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ACM Bulletin - March 2, 2006
Today's Topic: ACM Announces 2005 A.M. Turing Award Winner

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ACM has named Peter Naur the winner of the 2005 A.M. Turing Award,
recognizing his pioneering work on defining the Algol 60 programming
language. Algol 60 is the model for many later programming languages,
including those that are indispensable software engineering tools today.

The Turing Award, widely considered the "Nobel Prize of Computing," is
named for British mathematician Alan M. Turing. First awarded in 1966,
it carries a $100,000 prize, with financial support provided by
Intel Corporation.

Learn more about this year's A.M. Turing Award winner at:
http://www.acm.org/2005_turing_award

Dr. Naur was instrumental in establishing software engineering as a
discipline. In 1960, Dr. Naur was editor of the hugely influential "Report
on the Algorithmic Language Algol 60."  He is recognized for the report's
elegance, uniformity and coherence, and credited as an important  
contributor

to the language's power and simplicity. The report made pioneering use of
what later became known as Backus-Naur Form (BNF) to define the syntax of
programs. BNF is now the standard way to define a computer language.
Dr. Naur is also cited for his contribution to compiler design and to the
art and practice of computer programming.

ACM will present the Turing Award at the annual ACM Awards Banquet on
May 20, 2006, in San Francisco, CA.

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"Klaus D. Witzel" <[hidden email]>  wrote...

>as you can see from the below, a grandfather of Smalltalk (Peter Naur: Algol, Backus-Naur-Form BNF) receives the 2005 Turing award.

With all due respect to Peter Naur and his significant contributions to computer science, I'm not entirely comfortable with the characterization "Grandfather of Smalltalk".  He is certainly grandfather of a lot of current programming technology but, as one who was present at the birth of Smalltalk, I can say that our entire focus was to provide a fundamentally different computing model from that of Algol.  Alan Kay, in his History of Programming Languages article gives an excellent account of the genetic material that went into Smalltalk, and I would recommend that article to anyone who is interested in Squeak's intellectual lineage.

        - Dan

Hi Dan,


on Thu, 02 Mar 2006 19:47:15 +0100, you <[hidden email]> wrote:

Sure, that is what evolution is good for, at least :) Let me add that I  
respect your position, by all means.

I was thinking about Algol->Simula->Smalltalk when I saw the grandfather  
relation. Hope you don't mind :)

BTW: I'm keen to see whom ACM will credit the invention of virtual memory,  
or does anybody know that this was already done?

/Klaus

>  Alan Kay, in his History of Programming Languages article gives an  
> excellent account of the genetic material that went into Smalltalk, and  
> I would recommend that article to anyone who is interested in Squeak's  
> intellectual lineage.



> - Dan
>
>

>   Alan Kay, in his History of Programming Languages article gives  
> an excellent account of the genetic material that went into  
> Smalltalk, and I would recommend that article to anyone who is  
> interested in Squeak's intellectual lineage.
>
> - Dan
available at: http://www.iam.unibe.ch/~ducasse/FreeBooks.html

Hi, Klaus -

>Sure, that is what evolution is good for, at least :) Let me add that I respect your position, by all means.
>
>I was thinking about Algol->Simula->Smalltalk when I saw the grandfather relation. Hope you don't mind :)

No problem.  I get the perspective of *a* grandfather;  I just wanted to put in a marker for any newbies who might have no idea where this all came from.

        - Dan

By the way, there are lots of copies of Alan's article on line;  here's the first I found:

        http://gagne.homedns.org/~tgagne/contrib/EarlyHistoryST.html

Dan,
Do you know any pointer or reference to efforts done
 trying to follow the path drawn by smalltalk on building
 software outside the limits of Object Orientation ?
I am interested in readings related with non-formal
 activities (with adults) trying to go forward declarative
 programming.
I also feel that most of the limitations related with
 advances in OT and Smalltalk are related to
 adaption/adoption to common practices
 (OOLs) to smalltalk... I can´t found any papers
 or works realized outside formalisms, yet... 30 years later.
Any guides or comments will be really appreciated.
Ale.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Dan Ingalls" <[hidden email]>
To: "The general-purpose Squeak developers list"
<[hidden email]>
Sent: Friday, March 03, 2006 2:15 PM
Subject: Turing Award Winner [was: Grandfather...]


> Hi, Klaus -
>
> >Sure, that is what evolution is good for, at least :) Let me add that I
respect your position, by all means.
> >
> >I was thinking about Algol->Simula->Smalltalk when I saw the grandfather
relation. Hope you don't mind :)
>
> No problem.  I get the perspective of *a* grandfather;  I just wanted to
put in a marker for any newbies who might have no idea where this all came
from.
>
> - Dan
>
> By the way, there are lots of copies of Alan's article on line;  here's
the first I found:
>
> http://gagne.homedns.org/~tgagne/contrib/EarlyHistoryST.html
>