Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!snorkelwacker!spdcc!esegue!johnl
From: johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us (John R. Levine)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: Message from God (Fortran history question answered) sig blanks
Message-ID: <1990Jan13.154645.506@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us>
Date: 13 Jan 90 15:46:45 GMT
References: <5974@eos.UUCP>
Reply-To: johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us (John R. Levine)
Organization: Segue Software, Cambridge MA
Lines: 21

In article <5974@eos.UUCP> eugene@eos.UUCP (Eugene Miya) writes:
>From: John Backus <backus@almvma>
>We made one or more blanks equivalent to one blank because we felt
>this would allow a user to arrange his program more meaningfully;

Quite reasonable.  The real question is why they made one blank equivalent
to no blanks, to the consternation of compiler writers ever since.  I suppose
it was so you could write the variable DELTAX as DELTA X as in

      DELTA X = X(I+1) - X(I)

but it sure can be confusing.

On a related note, I wonder when was the first time that someone wrote the
classic:

      DO 10 I = 1.10
-- 
John R. Levine, Segue Software, POB 349, Cambridge MA 02238, +1 617 864 9650
johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us, {ima|lotus|spdcc}!esegue!johnl
"Now, we are all jelly doughnuts."