ALGOL W is a programming language designed by Niklaus Wirth and C. A. R. Hoare in 1966 as a proposed, more disciplined successor to ALGOL 60, adding features such as records, dynamic arrays, and improved string handling that the ALGOL 60 committee ultimately declined to adopt into the main ALGOL line. Implemented at Stanford University, ALGOL W introduced strong influences on structured programming style and was the language several classic algorithms textbooks first presented their examples in. ALGOL W's design was a direct stepping stone to Wirth's own subsequent language, Pascal.
Facts
First Released Paradigmmulti-paradigm: procedural, imperative, structured 2 SignificanceBased on a proposal for ALGOL X by Niklaus Wirth and Tony Hoare as a successor to ALGOL 60. 2 Classification
Typing Discipline Typing Discipline Connections
Follows Typing Discipline
Entity-backed identity for the typing discipline value this language already carries as an enum fact, resolved to a concept entity by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The enum fact itself stays on the entity unchanged.
Entity-backed identity for the typing discipline value this language already carries as an enum fact, resolved to a concept entity by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The enum fact itself stays on the entity unchanged.
In Field
Source ALGOL W (Wikipedia)
Invented By
Preceded By
General knowledge, not independently re-fetched: Niklaus Wirth and C.A.R. Hoare designed ALGOL W (1966) as a proposed evolutionary successor to ALGOL 60, before the ALGOL 68 committee took a more radical direction.
Predecessor Of
General knowledge, not independently re-fetched: after ALGOL W was not adopted as ALGOL's official successor, Wirth developed Pascal (1970) directly building on the ALGOL W design.
Sources
1. Wikidata: ALGOL W
- Wikidata Q1538458, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)
- Wikidata Q1538458 P7078 (typing discipline)
View the Source2. ALGOL W (Wikipedia)
Infobox, First appeared
1966; 60 years ago (1966)
Infobox, Paradigms
Multi-paradigm: procedural, imperative, structured
Lead, second sentence
It is based on a proposal for ALGOL X by Niklaus Wirth and Tony Hoare as a successor to ALGOL 60.
- In Group: ALGOL-Derived Languages
In Field: Programming Language Theory, Lead sentence
ALGOL W is a programming language.
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