@regehr That part isn't too objectionable to me. And I like Go's take on this with named (multiple) return values. I'm guessing that came to Go via Robert Griesemer, who went to ETH Zurich and probably was directly influenced by Wirth and his languages. As for having the same name as the function in ALGOL derivatives, well, there's a certain elegance to it compared to having to make up a generic variable name like 'result'. Though I agree it looks weird to modern eyes.