Simula

A family of languages developed in Norway in the 1960's and specifically designed to create simulations. Supersets of Algol 60, the Simula languages are notable for being the first object oriented languages in the world and being the predecessor to both SmallTalk and C++, while the object oriented features of Smalltalk over time moved quite a bit away from their Simula origins, C++ retains the object oriented model it inherited in a surprisingly faithful fashion.

Like so many older programming languages Simula used to be spelled with all caps, or SIMULA, however since the ratification of the Simula 87 standard the convention has been to spell it like any other noun, although when referring to classic versions the all caps convention is commonly used , i.e. SIMULA 66 and so on.

A list of OS/2 implementations of Simula

• Cim - Open source - Discontinued - Simula to C translator
• PC Simula - Commercial - Discontinued

A list of DOS implementations of Simula

• Cim - Open source - Discontinued - Simula to C translator
• PC Simula - Commercial - Discontinued - Now freeware

A list of Simula implementations that run under Java

• J-Sim - Open source - Current - Simula like rather than pure Simula.

Publications

• Simula Bibliography
• The Birth of Simula by Stein Krogdahl
• An old Simula information text file
• Andrew P. Black: Object-oriented programming: some history, and challenges for the next fifty years

Links

• The Association of Simula Users (Aka ASU)
• Simula info
• Simula information page from the University of Montreal.

Standards

• The original paper on SIMULA 67 that most compilers referenced is called Common Base Language.
• The Simula 86 standard is reproduced here