On the formalization of programming languages: Early history and main approaches.- Programming in the meta-language: A tutorial.- The meta-language: A reference manual.- Denotational semantics of goto: An exit formulation and its relation to continuations.- A formal definition of ALGOL 60 as described in the 1975 modified report.- Software abstraction principles: Tutorial examples of an operating system command language specification and a PL/I-like on-condition language definition.- References & bibliography.