Although perhaps not as much of a household name as other pioneers of last century’s rapid evolution of computer hardware and the software running on them, Niklaus Wirth’s contributions puts him right along with other giants. Being a very familiar familiar face both in his native Switzerland at the ETH Zurich university – as well as at Stanford and other locations around the world where computer history was written – Niklaus not only gave us Pascal and Modula-2, but also inspired countless other languages as well as their developers.
Sadly, Niklaus Wirth passed away on January 1st, 2024, at the age of 89. Until his death, he continued to work on the Oberon programming language, as well as its associated operating system: Oberon System and the multi-process, SMP-capable A2 (Bluebottle) operating system that runs natively on x86, X86_64 and ARM hardware. Leaving behind a legacy that stretches from the 1960s to today, it’s hard to think of any aspect of modern computing that wasn’t in some way influenced or directly improved by Niklaus.
A New ALGOL
Niklaus Wirth was born in 1938, got his Bachelor of Science degrees at the ETH زیورخ in 1959, his Master of Science at the Université Laval in Quebec in 1960, followed in 1963 by his PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley. After this he worked from 1963 to 1967 as assistant professor of computer science at Stanford University.
During this time he would develop the یئولر programming language together with Helmut Weber, as a generalization and extension of the then popular ALGOL 60 programming language. He’d also design PL360, a system programming language for the IBM System/360, which was the new computer system for Stanford University. His description of PL360 and the reasoning behind its design شائع کیا گیا in volume 15, issue 1 of the Journal of the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery). In it he expresses the hope that PL360 will find use as a tutorial language and to be of interest to the designers of future computers, illustrating how his focus was less on this one IBM platform and more on the development of programming languages in general.
With ALGOL 60 becoming somewhat long in the tooth, there was a call for suggestions for the next ALGOL version, called ‘ALGOL X’ as a placeholder. In 1965 Niklaus submitted a proposal for a set of additions to ALGOL 60, which was rejected due to ‘not being ambitious enough’ for a new ALGOL version. Even so, he was invited to submit his suggestions to the ACM magazine, where it was featured in the June 1966 issue. Niklaus would develop his proposal into an extension to ALGOL 60, called ALGOL W, while his colleague Adriaan van Wijngaarden’s proposal for ALGOL X would go on to become ALGOL 68.
Despite the somewhat competitive nature, there was no bad blood between the parties involved, with the very jovial Niklaus Wirth inspiring for example Van Wijngaarden to quip at the 1965 IFIP Congress that “Whereas Europeans generally pronounce his name the right way (‘Nick-louse Veert’), Americans invariably mangle it into ‘Nickel’s Worth.’ This is to say that Europeans call him by name, but Americans call him by value.”
Pascal And Beyond
Following very much his own course, Niklaus used ALGOL W as the foundation for what ultimately would become پاسکل, as named after the famous French mathematician and physicist, Blaise Pascal. First released in 1970, this programming language would go on to fulfill many of Niklaus’ wishes with PL360, in that it became an important teaching tool at schools and universities, as well as being used for programming minicomputers that were making computers ever more accessible outside of big universities and companies.
Pascal saw itself developed by Borland and Apple into Object Pascal, of which the Delphi dialect is probably one of the more well-known. Meanwhile Niklaus had commenced developing a new language called Modula, but after a 1976 sabbatical – during which he spent time at the Xerox PARC labs and got inspired by their Xerox Alto system and accompanying Mesa language – he abandoned Modula and created Modula-2 instead, which saw itself paired with the ETH Zurich-developed Lilith workstation, released in 1980.
یہ ایک تھا اے ایم ڈی 2900۔-based system, running the, fully written in Modula-2, Medos-2 operating system. From here the 1987 Ceres ملک workstation with its ill-fated NS32000 processor followed, which saw the first use of the Oberon System. Although a Modula-3 was also released, this was not developed by Niklaus Wirth, but rather by Maurice Wilkes who got permission from Niklaus to continue with Modula since Niklaus himself was busy with the Oberon programming language, along with the operating system written in it.
ایک منیڈرر نائٹ کا خواب
It’s hard to really look at Niklaus Wirth’s career and get anything other than the feeling that he truly enjoyed every aspect of it, whether the challenge of creating a new, better programming language, exchanging ideas with like- and less likeminded colleagues, or increasingly the development of an operating system, experimenting with both Text-Based UIs (TUI) and Zooming UIs (زیڈ یو). Although he noted that software in general by the late 1980s had begun to outstrip the capabilities of the hardware it ran on (referred to as Wirth’s Law), this didn’t deter him from continuing with what he felt was right.
His efforts in progressing the state of computer programming languages had been acknowledged by the ACM in 1984 when he received the ٹورنگ ایوارڈ, along with a range of books such as Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs that were used extensively both in education as well as outside it. Despite languages like Pascal having only a small presence in today’s world of computer science, it’s hard to underestimate the impact that it, as well as Modula-2 and other Niklaus Wirth-designed languages have on the landscape of computer science today.
Much of what we accept as the norm today with imperative and object-oriented programming languages, whether it’s C++, Ada, Java, or any of the hundreds of other large and small languages in existence today, can trace their roots to ALGOL 60. Roots shaped and nourished by Niklaus’ efforts over the decades in making programming languages as simple and effective as they can be. Even today, universities like Oxford continue to use Oberon in their computer science classes, with Oxford even maintaining its own Oberon-2 compiler (پچھڑے).
Where many modern programming languages have a mostly vertical learning curve, Oberon and its predecessors have the property that they are first and foremost simple and elegant, making them excellent teaching tools alongside Niklaus’ books. Although it may seem quaint to teach students to program in a language that they’re unlikely to encounter in a job, Niklaus Wirth has demonstrated throughout the years that it is not the language that matters, but rather the structures and definitions that underlie them.
Rather than developing ALGOL well into the 2000s, he instead chose to design, use and then discard one programming language after the other, dissatisfied with some aspects that he felt certain he could improve upon with the next iteration.
Preserving The Legacy
What is perhaps the biggest risk to Niklaus Wirth’s legacy is digital oblivion, especially considering the fruits of his career. Even while doing literature research on his academic past and the software projects like Oberon (the language and OS) and the A2 (Bluebottle) OS, it’s heartbreaking to see the amount of broken hyperlinks, and the defunct code repository at ETH Zurich for the latter OS. I was able to find an old mirror copy on GitHub by Bernhard Treutwein, in which a number of alternate URL are provided, including an active GitLab instance that appears to be the main repository.
Although much of the information and data does appear to be still out there, there is no good way for newcomers to learn about or get started with these last projects of Niklaus, with generally more information available on Russian-language websites, presumably due to the use of Modula-2 and kin in the Soviet Union and successor states. This fragmented state raises the risk that more and more of this extensive legacy will slowly decay, with few aware of it, and even fewer trying to preserve everything.
Here’s to Niklaus Wirth’s legacy to be preserved forever in its ever-changing, bit-perfect glory, lest it all becomes just a barely remembered Midsummer Night’s Dream.
(Top image: Niklaus Wirth with the Lilith system that he developed in the 1970s. (Photo: ETH Zurich) )
- SEO سے چلنے والا مواد اور PR کی تقسیم۔ آج ہی بڑھا دیں۔
- پلیٹو ڈیٹا ڈاٹ نیٹ ورک ورٹیکل جنریٹو اے آئی۔ اپنے آپ کو بااختیار بنائیں۔ یہاں تک رسائی حاصل کریں۔
- پلیٹوآئ اسٹریم۔ ویب 3 انٹیلی جنس۔ علم میں اضافہ۔ یہاں تک رسائی حاصل کریں۔
- پلیٹو ای ایس جی۔ کاربن، کلین ٹیک، توانائی ، ماحولیات، شمسی، ویسٹ مینجمنٹ یہاں تک رسائی حاصل کریں۔
- پلیٹو ہیلتھ۔ بائیوٹیک اینڈ کلینیکل ٹرائلز انٹیلی جنس۔ یہاں تک رسائی حاصل کریں۔
- ماخذ: https://hackaday.com/2024/01/05/remembering-niklaus-wirth-father-of-pascal-and-inspiration-to-many/
- : ہے
- : ہے
- : نہیں
- :کہاں
- 1
- 15٪
- 1st
- 2024
- 250
- 400
- 60
- a
- قابلیت
- ہمارے بارے میں
- AC
- تعلیمی
- قبول کریں
- قابل رسائی
- کا اعتراف
- ACM
- ایڈا
- اضافے
- کے بعد
- عمر
- تمام
- ساتھ
- شانہ بشانہ
- بھی
- اگرچہ
- اولوالعزم، خواہش مند، حوصلہ مند
- امریکی
- رقم
- an
- اور
- کوئی بھی
- کچھ
- ظاہر
- ظاہر ہوتا ہے
- ایپل
- کیا
- بازو
- ارد گرد
- AS
- پہلو
- پہلوؤں
- اسسٹنٹ
- منسلک
- ایسوسی ایشن
- At
- دستیاب
- آگاہ
- دور
- برا
- BE
- بن گیا
- بن
- ہو جاتا ہے
- بننے
- رہا
- شروع
- پیچھے
- کیا جا رہا ہے
- برکلے
- بہتر
- کے درمیان
- بگ
- سب سے بڑا
- خون
- کتب
- پیدا
- دونوں
- ٹوٹ
- مصروف
- لیکن
- by
- C ++
- کیلی فورنیا
- فون
- کہا جاتا ہے
- کر سکتے ہیں
- صلاحیتوں
- کیریئر کے
- کچھ
- چیلنج
- کا انتخاب کیا
- کلاس
- کوڈ
- ساتھی
- ساتھیوں
- شروع ہوا
- کمپنیاں
- مقابلہ
- کمپیوٹر
- کمپیوٹر سائنس
- کمپیوٹر
- کمپیوٹنگ
- کانگریس
- پر غور
- جاری
- جاری رہی
- جاری
- شراکت دار
- سکتا ہے
- کورس
- بنائی
- تخلیق
- کریڈٹ
- وکر
- اعداد و شمار
- موت
- دہائیوں
- تعریفیں
- غلطی
- Delphi کے
- demonstrated,en
- تفصیل
- ڈیزائن
- ڈیزائنرز
- کے باوجود
- ترقی
- ترقی یافتہ
- ڈویلپرز
- ترقی
- ترقی
- ڈیجیٹل
- براہ راست
- دکھائیں
- کرتا
- کر
- خواب
- دو
- کے دوران
- تعلیم
- موثر
- کوششوں
- برقی انجینرنگ
- تصادم
- انجنیئرنگ
- درج
- خاص طور پر
- ETH
- ETH زیورخ
- Ether (ETH)
- یورپ
- بھی
- کبھی نہیں
- ہمیشہ بدلنے والا
- ہر کوئی
- سب کچھ
- ارتقاء
- مثال کے طور پر
- بہترین
- تبادلہ
- اظہار
- مدت ملازمت میں توسیع
- وسیع
- بڑے پیمانے پر
- چہرہ
- واقف
- مشہور
- محسوس
- خرابی
- چند
- کم
- مل
- پہلا
- توجہ مرکوز
- پیچھے پیچھے
- کے لئے
- اہم ترین
- ہمیشہ کے لیے
- فاؤنڈیشن
- بکھری
- فرانسیسی
- سے
- پھل
- پورا کریں
- مکمل طور پر
- مستقبل
- دی
- جنرل
- عام طور پر
- حاصل
- جنات
- GitHub کے
- جلال
- Go
- اچھا
- ملا
- تھا
- ہارڈ
- ہارڈ ویئر
- ہے
- ہونے
- he
- یہاں
- اسے
- خود
- ان
- تاریخ
- امید ہے کہ
- گھر
- کس طرح
- HTML
- HTTPS
- سینکڑوں
- بالا روابط
- i
- IBM
- خیالات
- نمائش
- تصویر
- اثر
- ضروری ہے
- اہم
- کو بہتر بنانے کے
- بہتر
- in
- سمیت
- دن بدن
- متاثر ہوا
- معلومات
- پریرتا
- متاثر
- متاثر کن
- کے بجائے
- دلچسپی
- انٹرفیس
- میں
- بالکل
- مدعو کیا
- ملوث
- مسئلہ
- IT
- تکرار
- میں
- خود
- جنوری
- اعلی درجے کا Java
- ایوب
- جرنل
- فوٹو
- جون
- صرف
- رشتہ داروں
- لیبز
- زمین کی تزئین کی
- زبان
- زبانیں
- بڑے
- آخری
- مرحوم
- جانیں
- سیکھنے
- چھوڑ کر
- کی وراست
- کم
- کی طرح
- ہم خیال
- ادب
- مقامات
- لانگ
- دیکھو
- مشینری
- میگزین
- مین
- برقرار رکھنے
- بنانا
- بہت سے
- ماسٹر
- معاملات
- زیادہ سے زیادہ چوڑائی
- مئی..
- دریں اثناء
- عکس
- جدید
- زیادہ
- زیادہ تر
- بہت
- میوزیم
- نام
- نامزد
- مقامی
- فطرت، قدرت
- نئی
- نئے آنے والے
- اگلے
- نہیں
- کا کہنا
- تعداد
- اعتراض
- of
- on
- ایک
- صرف
- کام
- آپریٹنگ سسٹم
- or
- OS
- دیگر
- باہر
- باہر
- پر
- خود
- آکسفورڈ
- جوڑا
- جماعتوں
- منظور
- گزشتہ
- شاید
- اجازت
- پی ایچ ڈی
- تصویر
- علمبردار
- پلیس ہولڈر
- پلیٹ فارم
- پلاٹا
- افلاطون ڈیٹا انٹیلی جنس
- پلیٹو ڈیٹا
- مقبول
- کی موجودگی
- محفوظ
- شاید
- پروسیسر
- ٹیچر
- پروگرام
- پروگرامنگ
- پروگرامنگ زبانوں
- ترقی
- منصوبوں
- جائیداد
- تجویز
- فراہم
- رکھتا ہے
- کیوبک
- اٹھاتا ہے
- رینج
- تیزی سے
- بلکہ
- واقعی
- موصول
- کہا جاتا ہے
- مسترد..
- جاری
- یاد رکھنا۔
- ذخیرہ
- تحقیق
- ٹھیک ہے
- رسک
- ROBERT
- جڑوں
- چل رہا ہے
- چلتا ہے
- دیکھا
- کا کہنا ہے کہ
- اسکولوں
- سائنس
- دیکھنا
- لگتا ہے
- مقرر
- سائز
- سادہ
- بعد
- آہستہ آہستہ
- چھوٹے
- So
- سافٹ ویئر کی
- کچھ
- کچھ بھی نہیں
- سوویت
- خرچ
- اسٹینفورڈ
- اسٹینفورڈ یونیورسٹی
- شروع
- حالت
- امریکہ
- ابھی تک
- ڈھانچوں
- طلباء
- جمع
- جمع کرائی
- اس طرح
- سوئٹزرلینڈ
- کے نظام
- پڑھانا
- سے
- کہ
- ۔
- کے بارے میں معلومات
- زمین کی تزئین کی
- ریاست
- دنیا
- ان
- ان
- تو
- وہاں.
- یہ
- وہ
- لگتا ہے کہ
- اس
- بھر میں
- وقت
- کرنے کے لئے
- آج
- آج کا
- مل کر
- کے آلے
- اوزار
- سب سے اوپر
- ٹریس
- واقعی
- کی کوشش کر رہے
- سبق
- آخر میں
- زیریں
- یونین
- یونیورسٹیاں
- یونیورسٹی
- یونیورسٹی آف کیلی فورنیا
- امکان نہیں
- جب تک
- صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم
- URL
- us
- استعمال کی شرائط
- استعمال کیا جاتا ہے
- رکن کا
- صارف مواجہ
- قیمت
- ورژن
- عمودی
- بہت
- حجم
- W
- تھا
- راستہ..
- we
- ویب سائٹ
- اچھا ہے
- اچھی طرح سے جانا جاتا ہے
- تھے
- کیا
- جب
- چاہے
- جس
- جبکہ
- ڈبلیو
- وکیپیڈیا
- گے
- خواہشات
- ساتھ
- کام
- کام کیا
- ورکشاپ
- دنیا
- قابل
- گا
- لکھا
- X
- سال
- زیفیرنیٹ
- زومنگ
- زیورخ