A comparison between the ALGOL 60 implementations on the Electrologica X1 and the Electrologica X8

We compare two ALGOL 60 implementations, both developed at the Mathematical Centre in Amsterdam, forerunner of the CWI. They were designed for Electrologica hardware, the EL X1 from 1958 and the EL X8 from 1965. The X1 did not support ALGOL 60 implementation at all. Its ALGOl 60 system was designed by Dijkstra and Zonneveld and completed in 1960. Although developed as an academic exercise it soon was heavily used and appreciated. The X8, successor of the X1 and (almost) upwards compatible to it, had a number of extensions chosen specifically to support ALGOL 60 implementation. The ALGOL 60 system, developed by Nederkoorn and Kruseman Aretz, was completed even before the first delivery of an X8. In this document we describe the two systems, demonstrating the progress in both hardware and software in a relatively short period.