Was Algol 60 the first algorithmic language?

DURNOVÁ, Helena and Gerhard ALBERTS. Was Algol 60 the first algorithmic language? IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. IEEE Computer Society, 2014, vol. 36, No 4, p. 104-106. ISSN 1058-6180.

Basic information

Original name

Was Algol 60 the first algorithmic language?

Authors

DURNOVÁ, Helena and Gerhard ALBERTS

Edition

IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, IEEE Computer Society, 2014, 1058-6180

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Other information

Language

English

Type of outcome

Článek v odborném periodiku

Field of Study

60101 History

Country of publisher

United States of America

Confidentiality degree

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

Impact factor

Impact factor: 0.217

Organization unit

Faculty of Education

UT WoS

000346320000015

Keywords in English

ALGOL 60; algorithmic language

Tags

Reviewed

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Abstract

V originále

The phrase "algorithmic language" is conspicuously associated with Algol, the acronym first used to name the programming language Algol 60, which originated through a cooperation between the ACM and German Association for Applied Mathematics and Mechanics (GAMM) groups of programming specialists. In the 1920s computing real things, solving messy equations, came to be called practical mathematics or numerical analysis, and the techniques to do so were called procedures, schemes, or Verfahren (in German). In the 1950s, however, the venerable notion of an "algorithm" allowed computer users, who were reflecting on developing computing procedures and transferring these to automatic machinery, describe what they thought they were "actually" doing. This article traces the use of the terms "algebraic" to "algorithmic" during the development of the programming language Algol.