Algol 68 may have been a failure because it was ahead of its time, which meant it was hard to write a compiler for it. For example, Algol 68 had closures (appa

Algol 68 may have been a failure because it was ahead of its time, which meant it was hard to write a compiler for it. For example, Algol 68 had closures (apparently Knuth snuck them in).