Re: technology discussion → does the world need a "new" C ?

On 27.09.2024 23:03, Keith Thompson wrote:

[...]
 
I don't know whether the idea of "calling" parameters originated in
the Algol 60 report, or whether it was just common usage at the time.
Studying the early documentation for languages like Fortran, Cobol,
and perhaps PL/I might be illuminating, but I have not (yet) done so.

Concerning this I stumbled across an (a bit vague) comment in a
book from F.L.Bauer (CS pioneer and member of the Algol committee)
and H.Wössner (from 1984)...

"[...] Insbesondere die Nichtunterscheidung von Eingabe- und
Resultatparametern, einer der schädlichen Ausflüsse von FORTRAN,
machte als Ersatz die eigenartigen Parameterübergabemechanismen
('call by value', 'call by name', 'call by reference') erforderlich.
[...]"

"[...] In particular, the failure to distinguish between input
and result parameters, one of the harmful effects[*] of FORTRAN,
made as replacement the strange parameter passing mechanisms
('call by value', 'call by name', 'call by reference') necessary.
[...]"

Unfortunately it doesn't say what exactly it was (in FORTRAN) that
lead to the decisions for the parameter passing mechanisms and its
naming. Non-existing mechanisms [in FORTRAN] wouldn't quite explain
why they haven't done a better job in Algol 60. (Details are still
unclear to me.)

Janis

[*] Not sure about the best word for "Ausflüsse"; maybe effluences
fits better?