Early Programming Books

[Fred Cisin]

>> Is Fortran the newer version of FORTRAN ( I II IV )?

On Mon, 21 Jun 2021, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
> My recollection from X3J3 is that "Fortran" was officially endorsed with
> F90.  F77 still has FORTRAN officially.

After "FORTRAN 77", but before "Fortran 90", "Fortran 8X"
(DOD extensions standardized, etc.)

The FORTRAN that I used on the 1620 (1967-1969 at Merritt College (home of 
the Black Panthers) in Oakland) was a possibly local variant called "PDQ 
FORTRAN" ("Pretty Damn Quick"?)


In 1983, I got hired to teach FORTRAN and Microcomputer Operating Systems 
at Merritt, which was now up on the hill, out of reach of the flatlands 
Oakland politics.  The existing teacher had walked out, and I was hired as 
a long-term substitute hours before the class met.
I continued running a software business, in addition to "full-time" 
teaching.

They had had a DEC machine whose drive had never been reliable.  Then they 
sold that to Richmond public school district and bought a roomfulo of 
5150s. 
I taught using IBM PC FORTRAN, which was just fine for teaching, but 
extraordinarily slow (Sieve of Erastothanes benchmark was slower than 
interpreted BASIC).

When Richmond installed it, PG&E got it wrong about Delta VS WYE three 
phase power!  But, in exchange for everybody publicly saying that it had 
been a "lightning strike" that did it in, PG&E bought Richmond Schools a 
replacement machine, and the drive reliability problems were finally 
solved.

I stayed in the Peralta Community College District, that Merritt was part 
of, for more than 30 years, and retired with a decent stable state 
administerd pension and very good unstable college administered health 
benefits.

--
Grumpy Ol' Fred     		cisin at xenosoft.com