From Newsgroup: comp.lang.misc

Standard identifiers in Algol 68 may contain arbitrary spaces,
besides 'intlengths', 'int lengths', or even 'in tl en gt hs'.

I've found in some old editor syntax file Algol 68 identifiers
defined with underscores in their name, like 'int_lengths'.

This syntax variant is not supported by the Genie interpreter,
but I'm interested to know whether other compiler/interpreter
support such a lexical variant.

Janis

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From Newsgroup: comp.lang.misc

On 23/02/2026 18:29, Janis Papanagnou wrote:

I've found in some old editor syntax file Algol 68 identifiers
defined with underscores in their name, like 'int_lengths'.
This syntax variant is not supported by the Genie interpreter,
but I'm interested to know whether other compiler/interpreter
support such a lexical variant.

I don't know of any [I think A68R didn't allow it], but
perhaps worth noting that "_" is a natural choice for "letter
aleph" -- that is, part of an identifier [or mode/operator name]
that the language knows about but that ordinary source code has
no way of writing. There are lots of examples in the RR, notably
in the library routines and similar. You may perhaps find further
info in the reports of the Stillwater [Oklahoma] Conference, which
ISTR had a lot of papers on "worthy" characters and the like [but
I don't have a copy myself].

Andy
--
Andy Walker, Nottingham.
Andy's music pages: www.cuboid.me.uk/andy/Music
Composer of the day: www.cuboid.me.uk/andy/Music/Composers/Schulz-Evler
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From Newsgroup: comp.lang.misc

On 2026-02-24 14:37, Andy Walker wrote:

On 23/02/2026 18:29, Janis Papanagnou wrote:

I've found in some old editor syntax file Algol 68 identifiers
defined with underscores in their name, like 'int_lengths'.
This syntax variant is not supported by the Genie interpreter,
but I'm interested to know whether other compiler/interpreter
support such a lexical variant.

-a-a-a-aI don't know of any [I think A68R didn't allow it], but
perhaps worth noting that "_" is a natural choice for "letter
aleph" -- that is, part of an identifier [or mode/operator name]
that the language knows about but that ordinary source code has
no way of writing.-a There are lots of examples in the RR, notably
in the library routines and similar.-a You may perhaps find further
info in the reports of the Stillwater [Oklahoma] Conference, which
ISTR had a lot of papers on "worthy" characters and the like [but
I don't have a copy myself].

Thanks. - I think it should be fairly safe to remove all underscores
from the syntax file's standard prelude identifiers then.


The "unworthy characters" that you mention is another thing. I think
I had tested whether those alternative symbols (like 'NE' represented
as a single character symbol) will be accepted by Genie, but no; all
UTF-8 characters seem to be considered "unworthy"? I don't quite get
it who determines what's considered "worthy" or "unworthy", the Genie
or the Standard. I also wonder about all those alternative characters
that can be seen in old Algol 68 books, from the days where no UTF-8
(or Unicode) was existing.

Janis

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