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From: corrigan@weber.ucsd.edu (Michael J. Corrigan)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: Fortran - our favorite language
Message-ID: <5083@network.ucsd.edu>
Date: 30 Mar 91 01:19:53 GMT
References: <1991Mar20.195732.15376@appmag.com> <2218@cluster.cs.su.oz.au> <16149@chaph.usc.edu>
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In article <16149@chaph.usc.edu> echeverr@sal-sun8.usc.edu (The Black Sheep) writes:
>Excuse me, but is it just me, or is fortran a language so old it is becoming
>obsolescent?	Really, i just can't handle doing programs while tripping over
>small details and phantom errors from nowhere and tricky compilations and
>core dump after core dump after execution...
>
>	Please, answer me, enlighten me on my feelings toward f77...
>
>		... cuz i still think it s*cks!! :-p

    fortran is not becoming obsolescent. It is a LOT better than it used to
be ( do while e.g.)

	It may be you. Humans are not as willing/able to perform rote memorization,
learning of complex tasks nor to concentrate for long periods as they get older
in my experience. Time to let the youngsters in.

	If you had learned fortran on a non-unix system and are a dedicated unix
weenie then you would be thankful that there is a fortran compiler.


	f77, although beefed up in recent years on some systems ( they tend to
give it a new name at that point, though) is still implemented
poorly on any number of UNIX systems. Possibly you have one of those.
For example, on some systems there is no symbolic debugger support
for f77. The syntax checker possibly isn't informative. Intermodule
cross-referencing at source level would be nice. That's not fortran's
fault but the vendor.

	On tripping over small details. I don't know any computer language
/compiler where characters can be left out of a program and you will still get
the same result. The program has to be letter-perfect in any language. Every
t crossed an i dotted, so to speak.

	As for phantom errors, presumably those would be run-time errors.
Usually this is due to trashed memory. Check your array bounds. Check
passed data types for consistency between caller and callee.

	Tricky compilations ??? Try "man make"

	If you do "mkdir core" then you won't get any more core dumps.


Michael J. Corrigan

corrigan@ucsd.edu