So-Called Real Programmers and FORTRAN - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

6 May 2002

...
    From: Allison [mailto:ajp166@bellatlantic.net]
 I disagree. The UCSD version was an excellent teaching tool but 
 slower than sludge due to the P-code thing. Later implementations
 namely JRT and Borland were very useful tools. 
I'm also of that opinion. I like Pascal, and Modula, and Oberon...
Chris  
 I went from HP3000 BASIC to UCSD Pascal. I liked it. In retrospect,
 the things that suck about Pascal are the argument passing mechanism
 and strings. C is better essentially because it lets you manage
 memory directly, without predefined string sizes. And it lets you
 handle the guts. 
My only problem with Pascal argument passing was the lack of
support for missing arcguments (or short lists as some call them).
Modula-2 corrected that omission.

...
  But I am not a C programmer in general (except when
programming
 microcontrollers in RT applications); I write mostly scientific numerical 
 (portable) code, and Matlab and FORTRAN rule in that realm. Yes, FORTRAN. :-)
 My stuff runs under Solaris, AIX, Linux, HPUX, and Win32, using gcc/g77,
 HP f77, Sun fortran, xlf. 
Been working on a utility in F77 myself, just recently...

-dq