One of the first types of problem that computers were used to solve was the simulation of discrete systems. This resulted in the production of a number of specialised simulation languages one of which became known as SIMULA'67. This was developed in the early 1960's by a small group led by Ole-Johan Dahl and Kristan Nygaard at the Norwegian Computer Centre. SIMULA was designed for system description and simulation by examining the life cycle of the elements making up the system. The language was founded on ALGOL'60 with the very important addition of the concept of classes. For this reason alone SIMULA deserves special mention.
The basic idea behind the class concept was that data and the operations that can be performed on it should belong together. This idea has subsequently formed the basis for Object Oriented Programming (OOP) and Abstract Data Types (ADTs). As a result the class concept has been taken on by many "modern" languages such as MODULA-2, C++ , Ada , Smalltalk and Eiffel.
Created and maintained by Frans Coenen. Last updated 03 July 2001