Ole-Johan DahlACM Turing Award (2001)

Presentation by Carsten Hood

CSCE 221-200 | Spring 2014

Life | Ole-Johan Dahl Born in Norway in 1931 Received his MS in Numerical

Mathematics at the University of Oslo in 1957

In 1952 began mandatory military service at the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment and was introduced to computers and Kristen Nygaard.

Joined the Norwegian Computing Center from 1963 to 1968

Became a full professor at the University of Oslo in 1968

Partnership with Kristen Nygaard

Dahl immediately befriended fellow Norwegian computer scientist Kristen Nygaard at the Defense Establishment.

This relationship combined two intelligent minds with different backgrounds

Together they developed the SIMULA programming language.

They remained lifelong friends and partners.

Without the unique brilliance of this partnership, the concepts of object-oriented programming may have

taken much longer to emerge.

The SIMULA Language Based on the well-known

language ALGOL 60 First object-oriented

programming language Intended as a means of

writing simulation programs for the military and industry.

Generalized in SIMULA 67

Originated the concepts of objects, classes, inheritance, and modularity

Included virtual methods, active objects, action combination, processes & schedulers, frameworks, automatic memory management & garbage collection

SIMULA 67 was an ancestor of C++, C#, Smalltalk, and Java

Contributions | Ole-Johan Dahl

Considered a co-founder of object-oriented programming

Singlehandedly developed the computer science college at the University of Oslo

As a professor researched systems of reasoning mathematically about OO systems and computer programming

Contributed to the important book Structured Programming, published in 1972

Later helped to develop the Advanced Boolean Expression Language (ABEL)

Legacy | Ole-Johan Dahl

Remained loyal to his country and alma mater throughout his life.

Helped invent one of the most important programming paradigms

Known for his modesty; attributed much of his revolutionary ideas to luck

Received the Turing Award with Kristen Nygaard for his work on SIMULA and object-oriented programming in 2001

Ole-Johan Dahl passed away the summer of 2002. His colleague Edsger Dijkstra died the next week; partner Kristen Nygaard died the week after.