A REAL programmer can write a FORTRAN program in any language.
On Mon, 17 Dec 2007, Chuck Guzis wrote:
At least at one time, it was true that FORTRAN was one
of the most
portable language, executing on the widest range of systems. I think
"more transportable than Syphilis"
The definition of FORTRAN from the "Devil's DP Dictionary", by
Stan Kelly-Bootle:
"FORTRAN n. [Acronym for FORmula TRANslating system.]
One of the earliest languages of any real height, level-wise, developed
out of Speedcoding by Backus and Ziller for the IBM/704 in the mid 1950s
in order to boost the sale of 80-column cards to engineers.
In spite of regular improvements(including a recent option called
'STRUCTURE'), it remains popular among engineers but despised elsewhere.
Many rivals, with the benefit of hindsight, have crossed swords with
the old workhorse ! Yet FORTRAN gallops on, warts and all, more
transportable than syphilis, fired by a bottomless pit of working
subprograms. Lacking the compact power of APL, the intellectually
satisfying elegance of ALGOL 68, the didactic incision of Pascal, and the
spurned universality of PL/I, FORTRAN survives, nay, FLOURISHES, thanks
to a superior investmental inertia."
http://sysprog.net/quotcob.html
If it weren't for FORTRAN, I wouldn't have ended up here.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at
xenosoft.com