Niklaus Wirth, a pioneer of computer science, passed away in January 2024. He was known for his practical impact on the field while adhering to scientific and engineering principles. Wirth, an engineer himself, developed programming languages, compilers, and systems software, often having to create the necessary science himself. The author of the content had the privilege of working with Wirth as his PhD student and attributes his interest in computer science to Wirth’s influence. Wirth’s emphasis on simplicity and elegance in his inventions left a lasting impact on the author’s approach to programming. Despite Wirth’s contributions, some of his proposed languages, such as ALGOL-W, were not widely accepted. The author also mentions the simplicity and efficiency of Wirth’s programming tools and the unique work environment in Wirth’s group at ETH. Wirth’s languages, including Pascal, Modula-2, and Oberon, prioritized compactness and modularity. The author expresses gratitude for the experience of learning from Wirth and mentions Wirth’s disdain for committees and his focus on practical abstractions. Overall, Wirth’s legacy lies in his ability to combine theory and practicality with a focus on simplicity.
https://odersky.github.io/blog/2024-01-04-post.html