ga68, the GNU Algol 68 Compiler – FOSDEM 2026 [video]

At FOSDEM 2026 in Brussels, a new star of the retro-coding universe took the stage: ga68, a fresh front-end that lets the popular GNU compiler suite (GCC) build programs written in Algol 68, a language born in the late 1960s. Speaker Jose E. Marchesi gave the whirlwind intro, and the video is here. But the real show? The comments.

One camp burst in with nostalgia confetti. Rochus swaggered in with “I prefer Simula 67”, throwing down a retro gauntlet and igniting an old-school language showdown. Another commenter, HarHarVeryFunny, spun a classroom flashback: learning Algol W (a Wirth-era variant) before moving on to Pascal and Modula—basically a guided museum tour of programming ancestors. Meanwhile, the skeptic squad showed up: ninalanyon asked the question everyone was thinking—beyond hobby vibes, is there any practical reason to make an Algol 68 compiler?

And that’s the drama: Team Nostalgia vs Team Pragmatic. Fans argue it’s about preserving computing history, teaching clean ideas, and letting vintage code run on modern machines. Skeptics roll their eyes and ask, “Neat, but why now?” The memes wrote themselves—“Grandpa Compiler Collection,” “nostalgia.exe,” and “my grandpa’s code compiles faster than yours.” Whether you’re here for the romance of retro or the ROI, this tiny talk kicked off a big feelings thread. Catch the video and join the chat to pick a side.