An ALGOL program can declare task variables for use in accessing the task attributes of offspring processes. Every process-initiation statement must specify a task variable, which thereafter is associated with the new process. An ALGOL program can interrogate or assign task attribute values of the task variable before or after the task variable is used in a process initiation statement. Assignments made to a task variable before initiation are saved and applied to the process at initiation time.

An ALGOL program can use the predeclared task variables MYSELF and MYJOB to access its own task attributes and those of its job.

An ALGOL program can interrogate and modify task attributes that store any of the possible data types, such as Boolean, integer, and so on. The task attribute types available in ALGOL include two types that are not available in WFL: event and task.