Lisa C and Lisa FORTRAN - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

7 May 2010

On Fri, 7 May 2010, Rob Jarratt wrote:
...
  I can't say I have ever heard of Valtrep before
and my attempts at searching
 the web do not reveal any definitive information. 
The only immediate hits that came up on GOOGLE were somebody named Dan, in
one place identified as "Transnet" mentioning that he used Valtrep on
Stride-70 in 1986 and that it was the predecessor to FORTRAN.  Dan says
that he has no idea who that is.

...
  What definitive information do you have on Valtrep to
say that it
 predates FORTRAN? FORTRAN dates back to the 1950s. 
1954 Backus at IBM if I recall correctly.
Google doesn't show any mention by Backus "written from scratch" of
Valtrep, and, in fact NO mention of Valtrep by anybody not named "Dan".
There were some HLLs before FORTRAN, but FORTRAN was the first
"successful" one, and Backus did not give credit to Valtrep.

...
  PS I think personal attacks have no place on this
list. If someone has
 misinterpreted what you say, then explain what you meant, because it is
 always possible that you might not have been clear the first time. 
I can understand that it gets frustrating when people misinterpret
ambiguous statements.

--
Grumpy Ol' Fred     		cisin at xenosoft.com