[ale] They were Giants in those Days

[Jon "maddog" Hall]

I just watched this video by Dr, Aho who talked about the first FORTRAN
compiler in the 1950s took "18 staff years" to create.

I will point out that in the 1950s it was not widely accepted that
computers could be programmed in anything other than the ones and zeros of
machine language.   It took a while for even assembly languages to become
available, and that was a one-to-one translation, not a one-to-many
conversion.

We did not have "computer science", only "computer black magic".

I remember the day I was punching card 5000 of my compiler project when
someone came into the lab with a whitepaper talking about a "state driven
compiler".   I threw out 4500 "if" statements of my 5000 card compiler.

Al, Al, Al...it is so easy to make comments at the early stumblings, but it
is easier to look back then forward.

md

P.S.  I am sure Al was not demeaning the work of John Backus or Rear
Admiral Grace Murray Hopper...but sometimes the brilliant forget what it
was like moving forward by standing on other's shoulders.  Ideas were
happening fast and furious in those days,
I am not brilliant, so I never forget....

On Mon, Jan 5, 2026 at 4:00 PM lollipopman691 via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:

> Alfred Aho explains Lex and YACC.  Learning (f)lex and (bison)YACC changed
> my life, for better or for worse.
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ssGOC9m8Nk
>
> -- CHS
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