ALGOL Programming
| Field | Orthography |
| Went Obsolete | mid 1980s |
| Made Obsolete By | Spell checks in word processors |
| Knowledge Assumed | Basic command of written language |
| When useful | Standard of any computer course curriculum |
“Algol” was a notorious spelling error during the early days of word processing. At times attributed to machine error in order to save users from in some cases highly publicized instances of orthographically shameful incidents, Algol has become the de facto word processing anecdote circulated in modern computer labs to describe the Bronze Age of computing.
The first occurrence of “Algol” is attributed to Thomas Deximecz, at the time a student at Lawrence State University. Deximecz, a recent immigrant to the United States, while trying to formulate the sentence “Alan went lorkls”, typed “Algol” instead. Completely oblivious to English tense forms and syntax, Deximecz simply substituted “go” for “went”. As for the terminal “l” of his concocted acronym, linguists were never able to determine what exactly “lorkls” was.
This seemingly innocuous sequence of letters sent the computer network spiraling into oblivion, causing a univerity-wide loss of all text files containing umlauts.
In a faculty-supported push, Deximecz was ousted from Lawrence State and is said to have been deported to Europe. Today Deximecz works as an editor at a local newspaper in Prague.
There have been numerous other so-called Algol incidents at various locations all over the United States, but none have exceeded the initial one in notoriety.
