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Unraveling Algol: US, Europe, and the Creation of a Programming Language
- IEEE Annals of the History of Computing
- IEEE Computer Society
- Volume 32, Number 2, April-June 2010
- pp. 58-68
- Article
- Additional Information
Current views on the programming language Algol assume its European origins. However, the inability to exchange information between computers affected both sides of the Atlantic. Whereas Algol promoters sought to create one universal programming language, other approaches sought to preserve a variety of languages and create a general translation system. Therefore, the polarity was not between programming languages, but uniformity versus diversity.