Early Nordic cooperation comprised ideas, programs, even computer blueprints and resulted in rapid progress. Regnecentralen contributed importantly in developing Algol 60. Algol for Facit EDB was used at many sites. Further advances were Datasaab’s Algol Genius and the Norwegian Simula project. Regrettably, failure of our compiler companies led to software setbacks. We revisit the Algol debates considering later advances like functional programming. For example, provability of programs depends on recursion and absence of side effects. Computer progress forced cooperation between people from different environments. Too little was done consciously to avoid the ensuing cultural clashes, which impeded progress.