MAD (PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE)

'MAD' (short for 'M'ichigan 'A'lgorithmic 'D'ecoder), developed in 1959 at the University of Michigan, was a variant of the International algorithmic language (IAL) developed for use with their UMES operating system (which preceded the Michigan Terminal System). IAL was the original name given to the project that eventually produced ALGOL 58.
Early programs written in MAD include RUNOFF, one of the first text processing systems.

Contents

Trivia

References

Trivia

In an early version the bug handling was a bit odd. When a user made an error while using Michigan Algorithmic Decoder a picture of Alfred E. Neuman appeared regardless what error the user made. It refers to the decoder's abbreviation MAD ('M'ichigan 'A'lgorithmic 'D'ecoder) and the comic MAD magazine. This feature was not implemented in the final official version ^[1].

References

1. Ben Shneiderman, "Designing the user interface" (Third Issue)