(Interestingly, some of the algorithms mentioned in the article are missing from the list. It also doesn't list many algorithms from 19th century.)
And indeed it seems, there are not so many recently, though I think AKS Primality Test would qualify as a great algorithm of 21st century.
Ask yourself, which of the 10 have you used today?
The Fortran I compiler would expand each operator with a sequence of parentheses. In a simplified form of the algorithm, it would
• replace + and – with ))+(( and ))-((, respectively;
• replace * and / with )*( and )/(, respectively;
• add (( at the beginning of each expression and after each left parenthesis in the original expression; and
• add )) at the end of the expression and before each right parenthesis in the original expression.
This is the first time I hear about this, this technique will work with today compilers vs. most others like precedence climb?
http://www.cesg.gov.uk/publications/Documents/nonsecret_encr...
He did this in his head, and had to keep it there overnight until he got to work the next morning.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/gchq-pioneers-on-birth-of-publi...
This article also shows GCHQ's failure of imagination:
> Ralph Benjamin: It was revolutionary in the intellectual schema, and eventually in its operational impact. We didn't then foresee the full eventual operational impact. My conclusion was that the process would be so cumbersome, especially considering the computing ability of the time, it might have been useful for the occasional short message, but its main use would be a short message to transmit a key for conventional cryptography.
