>> To be truthful I have always thought that the contribution of >> Fortran was overstated, certainly as regards commercial >> computing (input/output? - Do you mean the teletype?; >> Permanent storage? - why would you need that - the >> program types out the anwer at the end!) > > The fact that it was the first non-Assembler-level language was > pretty significant, IMO.
IIRC (not having read the obit yet), Backus pretty much put together Fortran as a hack. After it took off in all its inelegance, he wanted to put together a proper high-level language and got the leading computer scientists of the time to create a BNF spec for Algol. Despite all this propriety, Algol never achieved the success that Fortran did. -Jerry Wolper [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: ProFox@leafe.com Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
