Editing Man or boy test (section)

{{Short description|Computer algorithm for evaluating compiler implementations}}
The '''man or boy test''' was proposed by computer scientist [[Donald Knuth]] as a means of evaluating implementations of the [[ALGOL 60]] programming language. The aim of the test was to distinguish [[compiler]]s that correctly implemented "[[recursion (computer science)|recursion]] and [[non-local reference]]s" from those that did not.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ardö |first1=Anders |last2=Philipson |first2=Lars |date=March 1984 |title=A simple Ada compiler invalidation test |journal=ACM SIGAda Ada Letters |language=en |volume=III |issue=5 |pages=69–74 |doi=10.1145/998382.998385 |issn=1094-3641|doi-access=free }}</ref>
<!-- scoping and [[call by name]] (the "men") from those that did not (the "boys"). -->

{{quote
|text=There are quite a few ALGOL60 translators in existence which have been designed to handle recursion and non-local references properly, and I thought perhaps a little test-program may be of value. Hence I have written the following simple routine, which may separate the man-compilers from the boy-compilers.
|author=[[Donald Knuth]]<ref name="knuth64">
{{cite journal |author=Donald Knuth |title=Man or boy? |journal=ALGOL Bulletin |volume=17 |page=7 |date=July 1964 |doi=<!-- 10.5555/1060969.1060972 --> |url=https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/1060969.1060972}}
{{cite web |url=http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/algol/algol_bulletin/A17/P24.HTM |title=AB17.2.4 Donald Knuth: Man or boy?, page 7 |website=archive.computerhistory.org}}
See also: {{cite web |title=Algol Bulletin |website=Computing at Chilton: 1961–2000 |url=http://www.chilton-computing.org.uk/acl/applications/algol/p006.htm |accessdate=Dec 25, 2009}}
</ref>
}}