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Niklaus Emil Wirth (born 15 February 1934) is a Swiss computer scientist. He has designed several
programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language. The description of a programming ...
s, including Pascal, and pioneered several classic topics in software engineering. In 1984, he won the
Turing Award The ACM A. M. Turing Award is an annual prize given by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for contributions of lasting and major technical importance to computer science. It is generally recognized as the highest distinction in comput ...
, generally recognized as the highest distinction in
computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includi ...
, for developing a sequence of innovative computer languages.


Biography

Wirth was born in
Winterthur , neighboring_municipalities = Brütten, Dinhard, Elsau, Hettlingen, Illnau-Effretikon, Kyburg, Lindau, Neftenbach, Oberembrach, Pfungen, Rickenbach, Schlatt, Seuzach, Wiesendangen, Zell , twintowns = Hall in Tirol (Austria ...
, Switzerland, in 1934. In 1959, he earned a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in
electronic engineering Electronics engineering is a sub-discipline of electrical engineering which emerged in the early 20th century and is distinguished by the additional use of active components such as semiconductor devices to amplify and control electric current ...
from the
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich (colloquially) , former_name = eidgenössische polytechnische Schule , image = ETHZ.JPG , image_size = , established = , type = Public , budget = CHF 1.896 billion (2021) , rector = Günther Dissertori , president = Joël Mesot , a ...
(ETH Zürich). In 1960, he earned a Master of Science (MSc) from
Université Laval Université Laval is a public research university in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The university was founded by royal charter issued by Queen Victoria in 1852, with roots in the founding of the Séminaire de Québec in 1663 by François de Montm ...
, Canada. Then in 1963, he was awarded a PhD in
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) is an academic program at many universities which comprises scientific and engineering aspects of computing. CSE is also a term often used in Europe to translate the name of engineering informatics academic ...
(EECS) from the
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
, supervised by the computer design pioneer
Harry Huskey Harry Douglas Huskey (January 19, 1916 – April 9, 2017) was an American computer design pioneer. Early life and career Huskey was born in Whittier, in the Smoky Mountains region of North Carolina and grew up in Idaho. He received his bache ...
. From 1963 to 1967, he served as assistant professor of
computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includi ...
at Stanford University and again at the
University of Zurich The University of Zürich (UZH, german: Universität Zürich) is a public research university located in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 f ...
. Then in 1968, he became Professor of Informatics at ETH Zürich, taking two one-year sabbaticals at
Xerox PARC PARC (Palo Alto Research Center; formerly Xerox PARC) is a research and development company in Palo Alto, California. Founded in 1969 by Jacob E. "Jack" Goldman, chief scientist of Xerox Corporation, the company was originally a division of Xero ...
in California (1976–1977 and 1984–1985). He retired in 1999. He was involved with developing international standards in programming and informatics, as a member of the
International Federation for Information Processing The International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) is a global organisation for researchers and professionals working in the field of computing to conduct research, develop standards and promote information sharing. Established in 196 ...
(IFIP) IFIP Working Group 2.1 on Algorithmic Languages and Calculi, which specified, maintains, and supports the
programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language. The description of a programming ...
s ALGOL 60 and
ALGOL 68 ALGOL 68 (short for ''Algorithmic Language 1968'') is an imperative programming language that was conceived as a successor to the ALGOL 60 programming language, designed with the goal of a much wider scope of application and more rigorously d ...
. In 2004, he was made a Fellow of the Computer History Museum "for seminal work in programming languages and algorithms, including Euler, Algol-W, Pascal, Modula, and Oberon."


Programming languages

Wirth was the chief designer of the
programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language. The description of a programming ...
s Euler (1965),
PL360 PL360 (or PL/360) is a system programming language designed by Niklaus Wirth and written by Wirth, Joseph W. Wells Jr., and Edwin Satterthwaite Jr. for the IBM System/360 computer at Stanford University. A description of PL360 was published in ea ...
(1966),
ALGOL W ALGOL W is a programming language. It is based on a proposal for ALGOL X by Niklaus Wirth and Tony Hoare as a successor to ALGOL 60. ALGOL W is a relatively simple upgrade of the original ALGOL 60, adding string, bitstring, complex number and ...
(1966), Pascal (1970),
Modula The Modula programming language is a descendant of the Pascal language. It was developed in Switzerland, at ETH Zurich, in the mid-1970s by Niklaus Wirth, the same person who designed Pascal. The main innovation of Modula over Pascal is a modul ...
(1975), Modula-2 (1978),
Oberon Oberon () is a king of the fairies in medieval and Renaissance literature. He is best known as a character in William Shakespeare's play ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', in which he is King of the Fairies and spouse of Titania, Queen of the Fairi ...
(1987), Oberon-2 (1991), and Oberon-07 (2007). He was also a major part of the design and implementation team for the operating systems Medos-2 (1983, for the
Lilith Lilith ( ; he, לִילִית, Līlīṯ) is a female figure in Mesopotamian and Judaic mythology, alternatively the first wife of Adam and supposedly the primordial she-demon. Lilith is cited as having been "banished" from the Garden of Ed ...
workstation A workstation is a special computer designed for technical or scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by a single user, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating systems. The term ''workstat ...
), and
Oberon Oberon () is a king of the fairies in medieval and Renaissance literature. He is best known as a character in William Shakespeare's play ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', in which he is King of the Fairies and spouse of Titania, Queen of the Fairi ...
(1987, for the Ceres workstation), and for the
Lola Lola may refer to: Places * Lolá, a or subdistrict of Panama * Lola Township, Cherokee County, Kansas, United States * Lola Prefecture, Guinea * Lola, Guinea, a town in Lola Prefecture * Lola Island, in the Solomon Islands People * Lola ...
(1995)
digital hardware Digital electronics is a field of electronics involving the study of digital signals and the engineering of devices that use or produce them. This is in contrast to analog electronics and analog signals. Digital electronic circuits are usually ...
design and simulation system. In 1984, he received the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Turing Award The ACM A. M. Turing Award is an annual prize given by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for contributions of lasting and major technical importance to computer science. It is generally recognized as the highest distinction in comput ...
for the development of these languages. In 1994, he was inducted as a Fellow of the ACM.


Publications

His book, written jointly with Kathleen Jensen, ''The Pascal User Manual and Report'', served as the basis of many language implementation efforts in the 1970s and 1980s in the United States and across Europe. His article ''Program Development by Stepwise Refinement'', about the teaching of programming, is considered to be a classic text in software engineering. In 1975, he wrote the book ''
Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs ''Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs'' is a 1976 book written by Niklaus Wirth covering some of the fundamental topics of computer programming, particularly that algorithms and data structures are inherently related. For example, if one has a ...
'', which gained wide recognition. Major revisions of this book with the new title ''Algorithms + Data Structures'' were published in 1985 and 2004. The examples in the first edition were written in Pascal. These were replaced in the later editions with examples written in Modula-2 and Oberon respectively. His textbook, ''Systematic Programming: An Introduction'', was considered a good source for students who wanted to do more than just coding. The cover flap of the sixth edition (1973) stated the book "... is tailored to the needs of people who view a course on systematic construction of algorithms as part of their basic mathematical training, rather than to the immediate needs of those who wish to be able to occasionally encode a problem and hand it over to their computer for instant solution." Regarded as a challenging text to work through, it was sought as imperative reading for those interested in numerical mathematics. In 1992, he and Jürg Gutknecht published the full documentation of the Oberon OS. Out of print
Online version of a 2nd edition2005 edition, PDF.
/ref> A second book, with Martin Reiser, was intended as a programming guide.. Out of print.


Wirth's law

In 1995, he popularized the adage now named
Wirth's law Wirth's law is an adage on computer performance which states that software is getting slower more rapidly than hardware is becoming faster. The adage is named after Niklaus Wirth, a computer scientist who discussed it in his 1995 article "A Plea ...
, which states that software is getting slower more rapidly than hardware becomes faster. In his 1995 paper ''A Plea for Lean Software'' he attributes it to Martin Reiser.


See also

*
21655 Niklauswirth Events January–March * January 5 – Emperor Go-Sai ascends to the throne of Japan. * January 7 – Pope Innocent X, leader of the Roman Catholic Church and the Papal States, dies after more than 10 years of rule. * Februar ...
asteroid *
Extended Backus–Naur form In computer science, extended Backus–Naur form (EBNF) is a family of metasyntax notations, any of which can be used to express a context-free grammar. EBNF is used to make a formal description of a formal language such as a computer programm ...
*
Wirth syntax notation Wirth syntax notation (WSN) is a metasyntax, that is, a formal way to describe formal languages. Originally proposed by Niklaus Wirth in 1977 as an alternative to Backus–Naur form (BNF). It has several advantages over BNF in that it contains an e ...
*
Bucky bit In computing, a bucky bit is a bit in a binary representation of a character that is set by pressing on a keyboard modifier key other than the shift key. Overview Setting a bucky bit changes the output character. A bucky bit allows the user to ty ...
* Wirth–Weber precedence relationship *
List of pioneers in computer science This is a list of people who made transformative breakthroughs in the creation, development and imagining of what computers could do. Pioneers : ''To arrange the list by date or person (ascending or descending), click that column's small "up-do ...


References


External links

*, ETH Zürich
Biography
at
ETH Zürich (colloquially) , former_name = eidgenössische polytechnische Schule , image = ETHZ.JPG , image_size = , established = , type = Public , budget = CHF 1.896 billion (2021) , rector = Günther Dissertori , president = Joël Mesot , a ...
*
Niklaus E. Wirth
at ACM * *
Turing Award Lecture, 1984Pascal and its Successors
paper by Niklaus Wirth – also includes short biography.

*
The School of Niklaus Wirth: The Art of Simplicity
', by László Böszörményi, Jürg Gutknecht, Gustav Pomberger (editors). dpunkt.verlag;
Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Morgan Kaufmann Publishers is a Burlington, Massachusetts (San Francisco, California until 2008) based publisher specializing in computer science and engineering content. Since 1984, Morgan Kaufmann has published content on information technology ...
, 2000. , . *The boo
Compiler Construction
*The boo
Algorithms and Data Structures
*The boo
Project Oberon – The Design of an Operating System and Compiler
The book about the Oberon language and Operating System is now available as a PDF file. The PDF file has an additional appendix ''Ten Years After: From Objects to Components''.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wirth, Niklaus E. 1934 births Living people ETH Zurich alumni ETH Zurich faculty Swiss electronics engineers Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery Formal methods people Pascal (programming language) Programming language designers Programming language researchers Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) Swiss computer scientists Turing Award laureates Université Laval alumni People from Winterthur Computer science educators Scientists at PARC (company) UC Berkeley College of Engineering alumni