Wirth, Niklaus (1934– )

Swiss-born developer of computer languages such as Euler, Pascal, Modula-2 and OBERON. His programming languages have been designed to encourage good programming practices leading to reliability and the re-usability of code. This restrictive approach has found favour in the academic world, where Pascal is widely taught. So far, however, most commercial programmers working on personal computer software have largely ignored his languages and his advice.

Wirth was born in Zürich, Switzerland, and has spent most of his life there and in California, USA.