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Algol 68 was conceived as a successor to Algol 60, with special attention given to wider applicability and a rigorously defined syntax. The contribution of Algol 68 to the development of computer science stems from original design concepts which were passed on in one form or another to many of the later developed programming languages. Some implementations became popular in academic environments and were used as a basis for courses in computer programming. Personally, having grown up in the mainframe era I learned programming in Algol 68 from one of the language's working group members, C. Koster.
Algol 68 did not become a widely accepted language. Although it pioneered many features that survive in present day languages, at the time compiler construction was not developed far enough to quickly yield implementations, and allegedly Algol 68 suffered a similar political fate as Algol 60. Algol 68 misses some features that would make it a succesful modern language, features that where not topical in the mid seventies.
Although the language is now considered obsolete by some, there still is a small but active interest. The language's compactness, orthogonality and strong typing facilitate expressing an algorithm, without having to think too much about how to implement it in the particular language you're programming in. This appears to have made a lasting impact on those that ever used Algol 68.
I am developing an Algol 68 implementation for GNU/Linux; for obvious reasons this implementation is named Algol68G. Algol68G offers an extended standard prelude implementing for instance multiple precision arithmetic and graphic routines for X windows. An online description of Algol68G can be found here. Algol68G is a more complete implementation than Algol68C was. Although Algol68G is not a full implementation, the restrictions imposed are encountered in various other implementations.
The original objective of making Algol68G was to have a tool for developing not too large programs for not too complex applications. Algol68G, like FLACC, is a check-out system with an interpreter that offers many runtime checks, including checking for uninitialised values. The combination of a check-out system with the implicit "safety" of Algol 68 makes program development quite straightforward. Interpreter performance on modern PCs matches that of Algol 68 compilers on mainframes around 1985-1990.
Algol68G is free software, distributed under GNU License. Here is where you can get it.
Published in category Algol 68. More on Algol 68 Genie.
© 2001-2026 J.M. van der Veer
jmvdveer@algol68genie.nl