When the Atlas Computer Laboratory started in 1963, the Algol 60 report had been available for a sufficient time that most of the machines being placed in universities had Algol compilers on them. Algol was an attractive language compared with Fortran for teaching purposes so the take-up in universities was quite high.
Unfortunately, neither the method of representing Algol programs or the input/output functions were standardised. This resulted in almost all computers having different facilities.
The challenge for the Atlas Computer Laboratory was how to allow Algol programs from any university to run on the Atlas.
