[1] Throughout its run, the periodical produced many influential programming language proposals,[2] while its open-dialogue nature prefigured the modern software development mailing list.

[3] The genesis for ALGOL Bulletin came in November 1958 at a meeting in Copenhagen between 40 representatives from large commercial and academic computing institutions in Europe.

Wishing to promogulate knowledge of the ALGOL programming language to the broader computing world, the group discussed starting a newsletter.

[4]: 174–175 [5]: 226  Peter Naur was tasked in February 1959 with editing and circulating the charter issue, which was published the following month, in March 1959.

[4]: 175  The revived ALGOL Bulletin was published at irregular intervals until the final issue in August 1988.