Jacob Anton "Jaap" Zonneveld (2 June 1924 – 22 December 2016) was a Dutch programmer who, with Edsger W. Dijkstra, wrote the first

ALGOL 60 ALGOL 60 (short for ''Algorithmic Language 1960'') is a member of the ALGOL family of computer programming languages. It followed on from ALGOL 58 which had introduced code blocks and the begin and end pairs for delimiting them, representing a k ...

compiler.

Education

Zonneveld's interest in the practical application of mathematics grew in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

in order to be able to predict the place where a

grenade A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade g ...

will land (

ballistics Ballistics is the field of mechanics concerned with the launching, flight behaviour and impact effects of projectiles, especially ranged weapon munitions such as bullets, unguided bombs, rockets or the like; the science or art of designing ...

). In 1948 he obtained his bachelor's degree in mathematics and physics; in 1954 he received a doctorate in numerical mathematics, and in 1964 a promotion with the thesis "Automatic Numerical Integration".

Work environment

Zonneveld worked from 1948 at the CWI (later the Center for Mathematics and Computer Science) in Amsterdam. As a scientific assistant, he was responsible for converting calculation assignments into formulas that were then initially performed by people on a desk calculator. In 1965, he headed a software research group at Philips' NatLab. He retired in 1984.

ALGOL 60

In early 1960, he and Edsger W. Dijkstra started developing a compiler for the programming language

day and night. They kept their notes in duplicate in separate locations to prevent them from being lost in the event of a disaster. During the development of the compiler, both developers grew beards. They agreed not to shave until compiler development was completed. Nothing was agreed as to what would happen after the completion; Dijkstra kept a beard for the rest of his life and Zonneveld shaved his off after a while. The compiler was completed on 24 August of that year, making it the world's first ALGOL 60 compiler. The compiler was developed for the X1 computer from Electrologica. The code is preserved in F.E.J. Kruseman Aretz's book

Personal

Zonneveld met the mathematician Reina Mulder (1931-2009) at the Mathematics Center, whom he would later marry. Together they had 3 children. Jacob Anton Zonneveld passed away in 2016.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zonneveld, Jaap A. 1924 births 2016 deaths ALGOL 60 Dutch computer programmers