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The development of Algol played an important role in establishing computer science as an academic discipline. Algol 68 was designed by the International Federation for Information Processing, Working Group 2.1 on Algorithmic Languages and Calculi (IFIP WG2.1). The Mathematisch Centrum Amsterdam (nowadays CWI, Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica) was a leading institute in this process, as it was in later years in the development of Python.
The Algol 68 Genie project preserves Algol 68 out of educational as well as scientific-historical interest, by making available a recent implementation written from scratch, together with extensive documentation for both the language and this new implementation. With the material available here, those interested in the history of computer science may study Algol 68 and its unique context-dependent two-level grammar to understand the influence it had, but also actually use the language for medium-sized programming tasks.
Algol 68 Genie is free software distributed under the GNU General Public License; it is a fast compiler-interpreter which ranks among the most complete implementations of the language. The documentation consists of detailed installation instructions, a comprehensive guide to programming in Algol 68, and the Revised Report on Algol 68.
From this site you can download the current version and its documentation. The distribution lets you build Algol 68 Genie from source code on Linux or related operating systems. For Microsoft Windows 10 and 11 a WIN32 executable a68g.exe is provided that can be run using a command line interpreter as Windows Powershell. Alternatively, you can browse the source code and example Algol 68 programs.
Please send comments and bug reports to algol68g@xs4all.nl; your feedback will be appreciated.
In 2025, a project was started to develop an Algol 68 front-end for gcc. This front-end utilises the hand-coded Algol 68 Genie parser for parsing Algol 68's W-grammar. The gcc-a68 branch repository can be found here.
Thinking about Algol 68
Chris Hermansen, both.org [2025].
The latest language in the GNU Compiler Collection: Algol-68
Liam Proven, The Register [2025].
Algol 68 implementations and dialects
Paul McJones, Software Preservation Group, Computer History Museum.
ALGOL: the father of mainstream languages
Mike Bedford, Linux Format (302) [2023]
Two-level grammars: Some interesting properties of van Wijngaarden grammars
Luis M. Augusto, Omega - Journal of Formal Languages(1) [2023]
Strange Code - Esoteric Languages That Make Programming Fun Again
Ronald T. Kneusel, No Starch Press, San Fransisco [2022]
Learn a new old language by programming a game in Algol 68
Chris Hermansen, opensource.com [2020]
Exploring Algol 68 in the 21st century
Chris Hermansen, opensource.com [2020]
Algol revisited
Paul Mallison, Crystallography News, British Crystallographic Association [2020]
Topics in Programming Languages, a Philosophical Analysis through the case of Prolog
Luís Homem, Universidad de Salamanca, Facultad de Filosofia [2018]
Algol 68 – A Retrospective
Daniel James, accu.org [2018]
Localización e internacionalización de software: puntos de encuentro entre el localizador y el programador
Luis Alberto García Nevares, Universidad de Salamanca, Facultad de Traducción y Documentación [2016]
Minutes of IFIP WG2.1 60th meeting [2005]
IFIP WG2.1 has continuing responsibility for Algol 60 and Algol 68.
Algol 68 Genie on Rosetta Code
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We implement a Partial Least Squares Regression algorithm in a pre-Python language … |
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I have posted Algol 68 Genie Version 2.0.0 and its documentation … |
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I wrote a simple compiler that translates most Fortran IV/66/77 source code … |
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Recently, Algol68C Release 1.3039 was made public for download … |
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© 2002-2025 J.M. van der Veer (jmvdveer@xs4all.nl)
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