On Thu, Dec 17, 2020 at 11:35 AM Bakul Shah <bakul@iitbombay.org> wrote:
Funny how we seem to rehash the same things over the years!

Ars longa, vita brevis.
In a 1988 comp.lang.misc thread when I expressed hope that "a major
subset of Algol 68 with a new and concise syntax (sort of like C's)
can make a very elegant, type safe and well rounded language.",

Piet
van Oostrum[1] commented the combination of dynamic arrays *and*
unions forced the use of GC in Algol68. Either feature by themselves
wouldn't have required GC!

I can't find this anywhere in the thread or elsewhere in comp.lang.misc.  Do you have a reference?

In any case, I don't understand how a safe language with pointers can avoid the need for *some* kind of GC.

[My exposure to Algol68 was when I had stumbled upon Brailsford and
Walker's wonderful "Introductory Algol 68 programming"

Alas, I can only find this at one shady site, or in hardback at Amazon for USD 20 which is a lot for a pig in a poke (no preview).



John Cowan          http://vrici.lojban.org/~cowan        cowan@ccil.org
"But I am the real Strider, fortunately," he said, looking down at them
with his face softened by a sudden smile.  "I am Aragorn son of Arathorn,
and if by life or death I can save you, I will."