GCC SC approves inclusion of Algol 68 Front End

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

The three most prevalent themes in the Hacker News discussion are:

1. Algol 68's Historical Significance and Modern Relevance

Many users acknowledge Algol 68 as a foundational language whose innovations influenced nearly all modern programming languages, while expressing excitement for its continued development within GCC.

Quotation: "For people who aren't familiar with the language, pretty much all modern languages are descended from Algol 60 or Algol 68. C descends from Algol 60, so pretty much every popular modern language derives from Algol in some way" said by zik.
Quotation: "It certainly has quite a reputation, but I suspect it has more to do with dense formalism that was quite unlike everything else. The language itself is actually surprisingly nice for its time, very orthogonal and composable." said by int_19h.

2. C's Deficiencies Compared to Algol 68

A significant portion of the discussion revolves around comparing C to Algol 68, pinpointing specific areas where C is viewed as lacking due to its simplified nature or historical compromises.

Quotation: "What do you think is wrong with C? C is essentially a much simplified subset of ALGOL68. So what is missing in C?" said by uecker.
Quotation: "Proper strings and arrays for starters, instead of being pointers that the programmer is responsible for doing length housekeeping." said by pjmlp in response, highlighting issues with array decay.

3. The Philosophical Divide Between Hacker/Hobbyist FOSS and Corporate-Driven FOSS

The context of this implementation within GCC sparks a debate about which drivers shape open-source development: preservation and diversity (the "hacker community") versus standardization and market demands (corporate influence).

Quotation: "In my mind this highlights something I've been thinking about, the differences between FOSS influenced by corporate needs vs FOSS driven by the hacker community." said by 0xpgm.
Quotation: "FOSS driven by hackers is about increasing and maintaining support (old and new hardware, languages etc..) while FOSS influenced by corporate needs is about standardizing around 'blessed' platforms like is happening in Linux distributions with adoption of Rust." said by 0xpgm.

🚀 Project Ideas

Algol 68 Compiler Extensions: Hash Table & Modern Pointer API

Summary

A feature set/tooling layer to augment existing GNU Algol 68 implementations (like the GCC frontend) to satisfy modern high-level data structure needs and address verbosity/confusion around REF types and pointer arithmetic.
Core value proposition: Making Algol 68 immediately practical for modern systems/data programming tasks without sacrificing its foundational features.

Details

Key	Value
Target Audience	Hobbyists and historical language enthusiasts using the GCC Algol 68 compiler; developers looking to implement modern data algorithms (like graphs/maps) easily.
Core Feature	A standardized "Prelude" extension library providing a robust generic `HASH-TABLE` implementation and syntax extensions for explicit, non-autodereferencing pointers (`PTR`).
Tech Stack	Primarily Algol 68 semantics, potentially leveraging existing GNU Algol 68 extensions or implementing new syntax within the GCC frontend.
Difficulty	Medium
Monetization	Hobby

Notes

Why HN commenters would love it: Directly addresses the pain point mentioned by dfawcus: "The real problem though was that I ended up needing something like a map / hash-table, and I concluded it was too much trouble to write from scratch."
Potential for discussion or practical utility: Sparks debate on "should modern features be added to a cemented standard?" (jemarch notes that GNU Algol 68 already adds extensions, making this a natural evolution).

Pointer and Expression Syntax Linter/Refactorer

Summary

A static analysis tool designed to parse Algol 68 source code specifically to identify complex pointer/reference expressions involving REF, * (dereference), -> (if extending C-like syntax), and array indexing.
Core value proposition: To automatically simplify or safely rewrite cumbersome nesting of dereferencing and accessing members into cleaner, more idiomatic forms, resolving verbosity concerns.

Details

Key	Value
Target Audience	Existing Algol 68 programmers (`dfawcus` mentioned finding `REF`s trouble and confusing auto-dereferencing); those wishing to adopt the language for system tasks.
Core Feature	Linter that suggests alternative syntax (e.g., using Go/Zig style member selection if explicit pointers are used) and a refactoring tool to parenthesize/reorder complex chains of operators like `*a` followed by member selection.
Tech Stack	Python/Rust for parsing Algol 68 syntax tree (leveraging existing parser knowledge derived from compiler development efforts); potentially integrates with Compiler Explorer environments.
Difficulty	Medium
Monetization	Hobby

Notes

Why HN commenters would love it: Directly addresses pain points around complex addressing expressions: "adrian_b: Writing such addressing expressions in C is extremely cumbersome, because they require a great number of parentheses levels and it is still difficult to see which is the order in which they are applied." This tool formalizes the improvement for Algol 68's derived structures.
Potential for discussion or practical utility: Invites exploration into syntax ergonomics, particularly compared to C's historical syntactic baggage.

Algol 68/C Interoperability Toolkit (ABI Compatibility Layer)

Summary

A library/toolchain component focused on cleanly bridging the gap between Algol 68's memory model (especially its lack of explicit pointer decay and reliance on garbage collection/references) and the C ABI, which is central to modern systems programming and FFI.
Core value proposition: Enables production use of Algol 68 routines in environments dominated by C/C++/Rust by providing safe, standardized mechanisms for argument marshalling, addressing C-style arrays, and handling C structures.

Details

Key	Value
Target Audience	Developers interested in keeping older, proven Algol 68 codebases/algorithms (`pjmlp`: UK Navy project) interoperable with modern toolchains.
Core Feature	A set of wrapper functions (`bindings`) that correctly handle the passing of Algol 68 value semantics (especially arrays passed by value via structs, as discussed by `uecker`) into C function signatures expecting pointers, and vice-versa.
Tech Stack	C/Algol 68 interaction; leveraging the GCC compilation infrastructure for linking.
Difficulty	High
Monetization	Hobby

Notes

Why HN commenters would love it: Deals with the messy reality of language interaction, echoing the performance debate between Go's C ABI vs. cgo. It tackles the core distinction raised between C's decayed arrays and Algol 68's more structured approach (pjmlp: "Proper strings and arrays for starters, instead of being pointers...").
Potential for discussion or practical utility: Could lead to robust, documented solutions for linking Algol 68 compilation units into larger, mixed-language projects.