I have been corresponding via email with Paul McJones who is a volunteer from the "Software Preservation Group" of the "Computer History Museum". Paul is building http://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/ALGOL/ gathering together information about the Algol family of languages (58, 60, 68, plus dialects): http://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/ALGOL/algol58impl http://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/ALGOL/algol60impl http://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/ALGOL/algol68impl * If any of this mailing list's readers have any "Dusty Decks" of Algol 68 memorabilia and relics, then please let Paul or I know about them: * Neville Dempsey - NevilleD.Algol68@... * Paul McJones - paul@... Take a look around http://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/ALGOL/ you will be surprised. Paul has uncovered and consolidated information about innumerable Algol implementations. Obviously the more immediate material to preserve would be the Source, Binaries & Documentation of compilers, interpreters & translators. (But details about historic Algol programs and projects are also important, see below (FYI) for details) So... if you have worked with Algol 58/60/68 on any projects, and/or know of someone else - Parent or Colleague - that has material the please contact them, forward this email, and CC us copy of the email so that we can follow up. * Paul McJones <paul@...>, Neville Dempsey <NevilleD.Algol68@...> Be sure to include some details about the nature of the work and any contributors names/emails. Many ThanX NevilleDNZ === FYI follows === We are lucky to have the Algol Bulletin which has a mountain of information faithfully recorded by it's editors and many contributors. ALGOL Bulletin issues (A total of 52 issues spanning a 30 year period from 1959 to 1988) http://portal.acm.org/toc.cfm?id=J33 [Note:free web account required for access] Various PDF's scanned by Algol68 contributors also exist on their own personal home pages AND Other sources are the various industry and academic journals of the 70's and 80's. For example the source code to the earliest Algol60 and Algol68 implementations are preserved in print in such journals: * First ALGOL 60 compiler source code - Full assembly text (~80 pages by Dijkstra-Zonneveld for 1960 Electrologica X1 computer) together with comments and equivalent Pascal version (1992 lines by F.E.J. Kruseman Aretz) - contained in PDF * "An interpreter for simple Algol 68 Programs" (PDF) - L. Ammerall These are truly historic documents, and - collaterally - historic programs. Other material that are a priority to preserve & recover include would be any Applications, Libraries, Projects, Operating Systems that used Algol68. But any material is worth considering, especially in this day and get of terabyte storage the entire planet's 1980 computer media would probably fit onto a single Blu-ray_Disc, so it is worth gathering what ever still remains, and cataloging the material in a useful manner. Examples: Operating Systems written in ALGOL 68 * Cambridge CAP computer - All procedures constituting the operating system were written in ALGOL 68C, although a number of other closely associated protected procedures - such as a paginator - are written in BCPL. [2] * Flex machine - The hardware was custom and microprogrammable, with an operating system, (modular) compiler, editor, garbage collector and filing system all written in Algol-68. * VME - S3 was the implementation language of the operating system VME. S3 was based on ALGOL 68 but with data types and operators aligned to those offered by the ICL 2900 Series. * The Soviet Era computers Эльбрус-1 (Elbrus-1) and Эльбрус-2 were created using high-level language uЭль-76 (AL-76), rather than the traditional assembly. uЭль-76 resembles Algol-68, The main difference is the dynamic binding types in uЭль-76 supported at the hardware level. uЭль-76 is used for application, job control, system programming [3]. ALSO: lets not forget copyrights. Many of the works are not in the Public Domain or Creative Commons and effectively enter a copyright "limbo" that prevents any kind "Software Recycling" until many years after the death of the author. By which time the media has long since under gone "Bit rot" (Or simply has been discarded). An example of candidates projects would be the several space vehicles used Algol - such as the Buran Soviet space shuttle landing system - it would be great to have details of these projects and source code available. Hopefully these authors will become known, and the material surface. I am sure there are dozens of other such projects - large and small - that existed in the 1970s and 1980s, but details are destined to be lost without your help: ThanX Again NevilleDNZ -- For Algol68-user mailinglist with archives & subscription: * https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/algol68-user To download Linux's Algol68 Compiler, Interpreter & Runtime: * http://sourceforge.net/projects/algol68 Join the linkedin.com's Algol68 group, follow: * http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2333923