Chet Gardner wrote ...
= Those of us who had to work on IBM mainframes, just as those
= of us subjected to windoze now, had to suffer through that period.
=
= Anyway, I prefer VFP... I/O WAS a bear in Fortran...
=
I have two general comments to make and they are not directed at Chet
My problem in hindsight is that it's hugely time consuming compared to
any WYSIWYG report designer.
I WROTE a report designer in Fortran back in the late 70s. That was
huge fun -- lots of math...
C
Hal Kaplan wrote:
Chet Gardner wrote ...
= Those of us who had to work on IBM mainframes,
Chet Gardiner said As for Algol, it was killed by the first 500 pound
gorilla - IBM.
Algol was killed by its own academic exclusivity: the same fault as I
critised in Fortran at the start of this thread. I say exclusivity but
perhaps I mean otherworldlyness - the assumption that computers would
Hmmm, just as C was killed by its own academic exclusivity? Just as VFP
is an extension of dBase so could Algol, etc. have evolved.
I really meant that Borroughs was killed by the first 500 pound gorilla
- IBM. My point would be that IBM didn't have a machine on the market
that could really
From the obituary:
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
John W. Backus, who assembled and led the I.B.M. team that created
Fortran, the first widely used programming language, which helped
open the door to modern computing, died on Saturday at his home in
The passing of an era.
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!)
On Mar 20, 2007, at 10:21 AM, Andy Davies wrote:
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
Ed Leafe wrote:
On Mar 20, 2007, at 10:21 AM, Andy Davies wrote:
The fact that it was the first non-Assembler-level language was
pretty significant, IMO.
And it was fun.
And I got an A+ in the course.
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Post Messages to:
As a fourth year computer science major, I took Fortran, taught by an SA
that was also in our program, for a foreign language credit. I now wish
that I had taken a language that I could speak to a greater number of
people. 8-)
RayTheOtherRay
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Vince:
I don't know about fun...
Back in the day when I took Fortran IV (1972 @ NC State) on an IBM 360 we
punched cards and handed them to a student
operator. Days later (I mean days - 1 on a fast return time and more likely 2
or 3 g) you got your printout back only
to find that the operator
Jack Skelley wrote:
Vince:
I don't know about fun...
Back in the day when I took Fortran IV (1972 @ NC State) on an IBM 360 we
punched cards and handed them to a student
operator.
Ah, that's probably what made the difference. When I started college,
my semester was the first semester
Hei
Back 76 I was using an interpreted language called FINITE, which had an
interpreter to translate it to FORTRAN, U of I in Urbana-Champaign.
E.
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On Mar 20, 2007, at 3:29 PM, Vince Teachout wrote:
Ah, that's probably what made the difference. When I started college,
my semester was the first semester they used terminals instead of
punch
cards. I bet Punch Cards would take the joy out of anything, not
just
Fortran. :-)
Ed Leafe wrote:
I wrote both Fortran and Cobol using punched cards. I wrote Basic on
a teletype (paper) display with punched paper tape as my storage.
COBOL using punched cards?! OMG, it was wordy enough on screen. Do
you still have nightmares where you're in Hell, punching
From the article:
When a tour guide inquired, Mr. Backus mentioned that he was a graduate
student in math; he was whisked upstairs and asked a series of questions
Mr. Backus described as math “brain teasers.” It was an informal oral
exam, with no recorded score.
He was hired on the spot. As
I had one job in '77 -- working with a Cobol Program on cards -- all 4
boxes of it.
We were getting about 8-11 hour turnaround on compile/test runs. That
is, put the box in and wait 8 to 11 hours for the output. One typo on a
punched card would really get one in a tizzy.
I hated Cobol. It
This is starting to get like the Monty Python sketch :-)
John Weller
01380 723235
07976 393631
Ah, that's probably what made the difference. When I started college,
my semester was the first semester they used terminals instead of
punch
cards. I bet Punch Cards would take the joy
The Four Yorkshiremen I think where each tries to outdo the others on what a
hard life they had as children.
John Weller
01380 723235
07976 393631
On 3/20/07, John Weller [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
This is starting to get like the Monty Python sketch :-)
Which one? I was thinking more
On Mar 20, 2007, at 4:24 PM, John Weller wrote:
The Four Yorkshiremen I think where each tries to outdo the others
on what a
hard life they had as children.
Oh, we used to dream of livin' in a corridor! Would ha' been a
palace to us. We used to live in an old water tank on a
I am not entirely convinced that that is a recommendation :-)
John Weller
01380 723235
07976 393631
One of the advantages of working in Python is that you are
surrounded by people who appreciate this stuff. In fact, the central
repository for code is called the Cheese Shop.
On Mar 20, 2007, at 4:33 PM, John Weller wrote:
I am not entirely convinced that that is a recommendation :-)
I fart in your general direction!
-- Ed Leafe
-- http://leafe.com
-- http://dabodev.com
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On 3/20/07, John Weller [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
The Four Yorkshiremen I think where each tries to outdo the others on what a
hard life they had as children.
Ah, yes, something along the lines of We had to live in a cardboard
box under the bridge. Well, at least you had a box. Yes, it's
exactly
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
This is starting to get like the Monty Python sketch :-)
Which one? I was thinking more DIlbert...
You had zeroes? We had to use Ohs...
The Four Yorkshiremen I think where each tries to outdo the others on what a
hard life they had as children.
For the record, that was originally from the
Jack Skelley wrote:
and 1/6 and a regular 1/16 scale. A prized possession for sure!
Kool!
Having a terminal meant you could easily play Star Trek! Every play that in
Fortran? It could be done with cards but not
much fun waiting for the turn-around!
Regards,
It was actually on there,
Actually, isn't that from the 1948 show?
Ed Leafe wrote:
On Mar 20, 2007, at 4:24 PM, John Weller wrote:
The Four Yorkshiremen I think where each tries to outdo the others
on what a
hard life they had as children.
Oh, we used to dream of livin' in a corridor! Would ha'
Don't tell me, Monty Python and the Holy Grail...
Ed Leafe wrote:
On Mar 20, 2007, at 4:33 PM, John Weller wrote:
I am not entirely convinced that that is a recommendation :-)
I fart in your general direction!
-- Ed Leafe
-- http://leafe.com
-- http://dabodev.com
I wrote an accounting system including a user-defined report writer in
Fortran on a Data General mini-computer in the late '70s
You could do ANYTHING with Fortran!!!
As for Algol, it was killed by the first 500 pound gorilla - IBM.
Algol was the machine language for the Borroughs 5500/6500
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