Discussion

• @bertrand_meyer Bertrand Meyer on x

  We lost a titan of programming languages, programming methodology, software engineering and hardware design. Niklaus Wirth passed away on the first of January. We mourn a pioneer, colleague, mentor and friend.

• @timsweeneyepic Tim Sweeney on x

  Wirth was the creator of Pascal, and part of the earlier Algol group that in 1957 defined the foundations of modern programming languages. “Power through simplicity, simplicity through generality” was the name of the game. He made programming better for everyone.

• @id_aa_carmack John Carmack on x

  @TimSweeneyEpic I never owned the 8 bit pascal (Wizardry was written with it!), but I did use my schools copy. I should still have my 16 bit ORCA/Pascal manual, but it must be in a box. There are still a half dozen bookmarks in my Turbo Pascal manuals from when I wrote Catacombs.…

• @laurentm Laurent Mascherpa on x

  Pascal was my first so-called “high level” language, brilliant syntax, easy to learn and grow. It went pretty far but it couldn't beat languages with brackets 😂

• @tunguz Bojan Tunguz on x

  Sad to hear. Pascal was the first “modern” programming language that I learned. Wirth's influence on the development of programming and computer languages cannot be overstated. May he rest in peace.

• @old_sound Alvaro Videla on x

  RIP. The Swiss man that started one of the first flamewars. The “Go To Statement Considered Harmful” title was his to get Dijkstra's paper approved and published by the ACM.

• @kentbeck Kent Beck on x

  I once explained incremental design to Prof. Wirth. His reply was, “<harumph> that's all very well if you don't know how to design software.” Absolutely brilliant! More later.

• @geerlingguy Jeff Geerling on x

  The man who created Wirth's law (software gets slower as hardware gets faster)... among a number of programming languages and OSes. RIP

• @thinkingfish Yao Yue on x

  Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs Pascal was what made me really fall in love with programming. RIP Mr. Wirth.

• @id_aa_carmack John Carmack on x

  @TimSweeneyEpic Pulled these off the bookshelf. [image]

• @dpaessler Dirk Paessler on x

  I've written all of my most successful software products over the last 40 years initially in Pascal (some of the long-runners still have a pascal-heavy code base today). Thanks Mr. Wirth for making my career possible by inventing the Pascal language. RIP.

• @wagieeacc Martin Shkreli on x

  Growing up, mom was a janitor at NYU. I was 10, obsessed with computers but didn't have one. She brought home a stack of books someone left in the garbage: a guide to using something called PASCAL. She had some intuition her son would like them. I started high school the next...

• @msimoni Manuel Simoni on x

  RIP Niklaus Wirth. To honor him, make sure your programming language can be described in 17 pages, like Oberon. Or at least make sure your syntax can be described in 17 pages. https://people.inf.ethz.ch/...

• @joshbloch Joshua Bloch on x

  RIP Niklaus Wirth. If you programmed in the '80s, you almost certainly know Pascal (which is his language).

• @vrandezo Denny Vrandečić on x

  RIP Niklaus Wirth; BEGIN No one created more programming languages that I used than Wirth: Pascal, Modula, Oberon; Wirth's law: software becomes slower more rapidly than hardware becomes faster; 1984 Turing Award; asteroid named after him in 1999; Wirth died at age 89; END.

• @zaskar Michael Grossniklaus on x

  To begin the new year with such a great loss is truly sad. I had the privilege to study under Niklaus Wirth ("Digitaltechnik" and “Systemsoftware") and had the pleasure to meet him privately a couple of times! We have lost a brilliant mind, amazing teacher, and humble person!

• @joel_mesot Joël Mesot on x

  In Niklaus Wirth, @ETH_en has lost one of its greats: someone who not only did pioneering work in the development of programming languages, but was also one of the founding fathers of computer science in 🇨🇭and at #ETH Zurich. https://ethz.ch/...

• @satnam6502 Satnam Singh on x

  I was lucky to get to know Niklaus Wirth a little which was a huge honour because I was cast under the spell of Pascal as a teenage programmer, and I appreciated the combination of power and frugality of its successors. Kind and gracious, he will be missed. I am very sad to hear.…

• @thomaswue Thomas Wuerthinger on x

  Very sad news. Niklaus Wirth's influence on compiler construction is enormous. Here is a paper about Wirth from my PhD supervisor Peter Moessenboeck (who was his postdoc) including arguments for meta-circularity, a principle core to the @graalvm stack: https://ssw.jku.at/... [ima…

• @perrymetzger Perry E. Metzger on x

  Niklaus Wirth was a huge influence on me as a young programmer. It wasn't just that he created important programming languages, he also clearly articulated a philosophy of software design that influences me to this day.

• @peter_paluch Peter Palúch on x

  Niklaus Wirth, the creator of - among others - the Pascal programming language, has passed away. 😔 My generation grew up on Pascal as one of core programming languages, and on Mr. Wirth's book on algorithms and data structures... Rest in peace, Mr. Wirth. 🙏

• @lzsthw @lzsthw on x

  It looks like Niklaus Wirth has died: https://lists.inf.ethz.ch/... My favorite joke I believe he said is something like: “In Europe I'm known by reference, but in the US I'm known by value.” This is the greatest coding Dad joke ever told.

• @andrewchen Andrew Chen on x

  “A good designer must rely on experience, on precise, logic thinking; and on pedantic exactness. No magic will do.” —Niklaus Wirth The second programming language I ever learned as a kid was Pascal Sad to hear that the Swiss creator, Niklaus Wirth, just passed away after... [imag…

• @pikuma @pikuma on x

  RIP Niklaus Wirth. ❤️ This is how Adriaan van Wijngaarden introduced Mr. Wirth at the 1965 IFIP Congress: “Europeans pronounce his name the right way, ‘Veert’, but Americans sometimes say ‘Worth’... That's because Europeans call him by name, but Americans call him by value.”

• @arocks Arun ‘Rocks’ Ravindran on x

  RIP Niklaus Wirth! Pascal was one of the first high level languages I learnt after BASIC. It was the Python of its time, used as close to pseudo code in all textbooks thanks to its immense readability. Grateful for his wit and immense contributions! [image]

• @nikitabase Nikita Shamgunov on x

  How I learned to program. RIP Niklaus Wirth [image]

• @www_caressa_it Paolo Caressa on x

  Elegance, simplicity, soundness, rigour, efficiency, ingenuity: all that, and more, was the way Niklaus #Wirth did research, software and books. Passed away on 1st january, closing an era in computer science. RIP [image]

• @neeran Neeran Karnik on x

  One of the OGs of computer programming languages... Niklaus Wirth, RIP. Funny quote about him: [image]

• @theofficialacm @theofficialacm on x

  It is with great remorse that we mark the passing of programming language pioneer and A.M. Turing Laureate Niklaus Wirth, who passed away on Jan 1, 2024. Wirth developed a sequence of innovative computer languages, EULER, ALGOL-W, MODULA and PASCAL, which provided a foundation...…

• @stevesi Steven Sinofsky on x

  Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs was the guiding light when I started programming and meant the world to me. While I didn't ever formally learn his invention, Pascal, it was the language I used with Turbo Pascal for fun (and speed) and Macintosh MPW to program my senior...

• @odersky Martin Odersky on x

  I am very saddened by this news. Niklaus got me into CS since I became fascinated by the beauty of his language designs and compiler architectures. And later he became the guiding mentor for my doctoral studies at ETH.

• @jonmasters @jonmasters on x

  This is sad news. I used Pascal and especially Modula-2 extensively in the 90s. Younger folks may not know the name Niklaus Wirth but it's worth taking a few minutes out of your day to learn about his contributions. RIP.

• @munificentbob Bob Nystrom on x

  Niklaus Wirth was one of my heroes. Pascal was the second language I learned (after Apple BASIC). If you haven't already, look at any of the languages he designed, or read his writing. His sense of clarity and elegance inspires.

• @jeffdean Jeff Dean on x

  Very sad to hear. 😥 Niklaus Wirth made many enormous contributions to the field of computing. Pascal was the first language I used seriously (initially on the UCSD p-System and later via Turbo Pascal), and I got my hands on this great book that he wrote when I was in middle... [i…