Question for the etymology wizards out there: which programming language was the first to use the try/catch/finally syntax found in today's Java/.NET languages?
I believe it was C++ and I think Java/C# added finally for resource cleanup (finally is not in C++). Unfortunately I have no references... yet.
Neat page of all the exception syntax: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exception_handling_syntax
I believe it is C++. If its not then Stroustrup needs to give credit. In his paper: http://www.research.att.com/~bs/except.pdf He does not mention any influences and does not reference any other material other than his own.