Leslie Lamport, the creator or LaTeX, will be speaking at <a href="http://www.cwi.nl">CWI</a> in Amsterdam in two weeks. While he will not be talking about TeX on this occasion, you are invited to come and hear him if you are in the neighbourhood.  Here is an abstract of his lecture.<br>
<br>Speaker: Leslie Lamport<br>Microsoft Corporation, CA, USA<br><br>Title: The PlusCal Algorithm Language<br>Date: 16th of June, 16:00<br>Venue: L016<br><br>Algorithms are different from programs and should not be described with programming languages.  For example, algorithms are usually best<br>
described in terms of mathematical objects like sets and graphs instead of the primitive objects like bytes and integers provided by<br>programming languages.  Until now, the only simple alternative to programming languages has been pseudo-code.<br>
<br>PlusCal is an algorithm language based on TLA+.  A PlusCal algorithm is automatically translated to a TLA+ specification that can be checked with the TLC model checker or reasoned about formally. (No knowledge of TLA+ is assumed.) PlusCal makes pseudo-code obsolete.<br>
<br>Note: Leslie Lamport made various fundamental contributions to distributed systems, fault-tolerant computing, cryptography, and program verification. He also created the LaTeX system.  For his research Lamport received numerous awards including the IEEE John von Neumann Medal.<br>
<br>With kind regards,<br><br>Michael Guravage<br><br>