14 Oct
2005
14 Oct
'05
1 p.m.
Subject: Re: OT: Language for the ages
From: "Zane H. Healy" <healyzh at aracnet.com>
Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2005 12:37:39 -0700 (PDT)
To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
Fortran seems to still be the favorite language for number crunching.
Zane
That is the forte' of Fortran. However user interfaces in fortran are sparse
as the language is not well suited to textual data.
I feel there is no one language for all tasks. For example older 8080/z80
hardware was likely programmed in ASM for embedded apps due to size constraints
of availabe ROMs. However I've seen a lot of stuff with basic in ROM and the
programming in BASIC so the hardware could be somewhat self supporting.
It would seem that languages that persist are those best able to cope with
large changes in computing environments. Fortran and BASIC are old and well
known as are Pascal and C and likely a few others. The rest are dialects or
specializations that live in specific application environments. When those
environments become passe` or surperceeded the languages will either evolve
or become "old".
Allison
Are there any schools teaching FORTRAN and more?
Does it
have an active community? If not, ...
Amazingly*, Yes.
I go visit my old college bookstore every few years for fresh titles
in Computer Science (this year: I bought O/S internals by Stallings).
It's a top 25 undergraduate engineering ranked place with a big
budget for new equipment so I was quite surprised to see this year
the book "Classical Fortran" by Kupferschmid. In my head I'm thinking
Fortran is Only for classiccmps and classiccmps are Retired equipment.
Apparently this course is for maintenence programmers.
John A.
* to me, for one.