ALGOL 68 is a singular artifact in the history of programming languages. It has been associated with a very unruly bureaucratic committee, widespread discord and criticism in the programming language community, resignations and personal attacks and accusations coming from its creators against one another, other kinds of politicking in its wake, "unreadable" supporting documentation, and the like. Although ALGOL 68 has had an unfortunate reputation in people's minds due to such associations, it is still a worthy successor to ALGOL 60, and a very important programming language in its own right.

ALGOL 68 is a language that grew out of the experiences of its predecessors in the ALGOL family, and like them, is named in part for the year of its creation, 1968. Although no longer used in practice, it is a source of (then) new ideas and ways of doing things. (Some of these were, and continue to be, very controversial within...