"Colin J. Williams" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >> Terry Reedy wrote: >> >>>http://campus.acm.org/public/pressroom/press_releases/3_2006/turing_3_01_2006.cfm >>> >>>Peter Naur was co-developer of Backus/Naur grammar notation, co-author >>>and >>>editor of the Algol 60 specification, and co-developer of a successful >>>Algol compiler.
> Peter Naur's honour is long overdue. That was my reaction also, tempered by three observations. 1. I do not have enough detailed knowledge of who invented what when to judge details of credit allocation. 2. The importance of Algol60 (and the impetus of the award) is not its usage in the 60s but the dominance of the family of languages it inspired, including, at least in some important parts, Python. But this has been a gradual development. So when did the award become 'due', to make it 'overdue' now? (I would say by 1990, at least.) 3. To call it overdue suggests that it should have been awarded before, *instead of* to someone else. But I am not about to suggest which of the previous (worthy, I am sure) recipients he should have been instead of ;-). Nobel's will specificed awards for the most important contribution in the previous year. The Nobel committees recognized that this is ludicrous in that recognition of importance can take decades. Terry Jan Reedy -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
