OT: Language for the ages

On 10/18/2005 at 11:32 PM infomagic wrote: All excellent points, John. There are some areas of the business world where 20 year longevity is not unusual. Defense for one (did you know that PDP-8-based equipment is still used in servicing C-130's, for example?) Another is civilian nuclear. In this case, we're dealing with an outfit that manufactures plumbing items for nuclear reactors. Basically a foundry and machining operation, the software in question is used to determine parameters for a given customer's design. There's no direct connection with manufacturing equipment on the factory floor. It's a pretty sure bet that if they go out of business, they'll be acquired by another nuclear-involved firm. After all, the government oversees this business at some level. I believe I've answered the problem for myself--and it hearkens back to an earlier observation that I made. My answer to the customer is that we'll document the formulae, algorithms and tables involved in his software--on paper. We'll then give the customer the option of running what he has under emulation--or we can recode it for a bit more portability--at least for now. FORTRAN wouldn't be a bad solution in this case, but if he wants C or BASIC or Smalltalk, he can have it. It won't have a significant effect when it comes to having the basic operating parameters available for re-implemntation. At least that's what we're thinking now. Cheers, Chuck