[net.lang] algol 68 information supplied

geoff (10/27/82)

For a start, there were two Algol 68 reports: the original and the
revised.  The original is no longer of interest since it contains
errors and inelegancies which were eliminated in the revised report.

Our local DECsystem-10 has release 1.271 of the Algol 68C (Cambridge
subset) implementation (no source, apparently).  Steve Bourne of Bell
Labs was involved in the 68C effort which has produced a `portable'
compiler.  Ported compilers may be available for some machines.  The
address to write is

	Algol 68 Distribution
	Computer Lab
	Corn Exchange St.
	Cambridge, England

There are allegedly compilers for UNIX available from USENIX and Bob
Constable of Cornell's CS Dept, but I haven't investigated these, so I
can't say for sure.  My apologies if I'm wrong.

The ``original'' Revised Report has been (re)printed in SIGPLAN
Notices, Vol. 12, No. 5, May 1977 which also contains the Algol 68S
(the official subset) report and the report on standard hardware
representation.

informal introduction to algol 68, Revised Edition by C.H. Lindsey &
S.G. van der Meulen is the official introduction to the language, as
sanctioned by IFIP Working Group 2.1 which produced the Algol 68
reports.  Published by North-Holland, ISBN 0 7204 0726 5.

A Practical Guide to Algol 68 by Frank G. Pagan, ISBN 0 471 65747 6
(paperback), published by Wiley, is a really good tutorial
introduction.  If I remember correctly, it could serve as a beginning
programming text yet didn't bore me to shreds.

Geoff Collyer, U. of Toronto Computing Services