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.