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From: bzs@WORLD.STD.COM (Barry Shein)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: (pssst...fortran?)
Message-ID: <9009081858.AA01770@world.std.com>
Date: 8 Sep 90 18:58:36 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 42


Someone just raised the issue of Fortran on alt.religion.computers and
it got me thinking...that "problem" really hasn't been resolved has it.

So, the question remains, what is the state of Fortran? Will it ever
be replaced? This is a near-term technology issue if there ever was
one.

Some observations:

Fortran remains popular not because people love the language (some
will say the do, but that's not important.) It's because of the
support for certain types of work that's found in your typical Fortran
environment. For example, complex data types, extended precision
floating point (e.g. REAL*16), matrix libraries, plot packages,
statistical packages, etc.

Now, sure, you can pick over a list like that and say oh such-and-such
has that (or, more likely, *COULD* have if anyone bothered).

One of the real breakdowns of communications between "computer science
types" and, for want of a better term, "fortran types" is that the CS
person believes that by saying "nothing in C/LISP/etc prevents one
from writing a perfectly good XYZ package, in fact, it would be better
than what you have in fortran", and that the question is answered and
the other party is just too neanderthal to recognize this. The FType
of course is aghast and confused, since all s/he wants to do is USE
that damn package, not write it. Potential != Reality, even if
Potential > Reality.

Now, apparently the Fortran 8X crowd has sort of suffered a melt-down
tho there is talk of just renaming the effort to Fortran 9X and
regrouping. Most descriptions of the work thus far I have heard have
called it "an attempt to hybridize Fortran and ADA", generally spoken
perjoratively. Perhaps that's unfair.

Reasoned discussion welcome, flames less welcome.

        -Barry Shein

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