Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site utah-cs.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!zehntel!zinfandel!hplabs!utah-cs!donn From: donn@utah-cs.UUCP (Donn Seeley) Newsgroups: net.lang Subject: Will Fortran ever die out? Some comments from SIGPLAN Notices Message-ID: <3003@utah-cs.UUCP> Date: Thu, 23-Aug-84 18:08:58 EDT Article-I.D.: utah-cs.3003 Posted: Thu Aug 23 18:08:58 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 25-Aug-84 06:27:33 EDT Organization: University of Utah CS Dept Lines: 35 Here are some excerpts from the panel discussion on 'Programming Language Issues for the 1980's' at SIGPLAN '83, a transcript of which appeared in the August SIGPLAN Notices... [p. 57, v. 19, #8] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Larry] Rowe: Most programs are written in COBOL and FORTRAN. Is there any hope that the good ideas discussed at this conference will impact these languages? [Stu] Feldman: No. FORTRAN is certainly on its way to surpass Ada in overall bulk. COBOL is moving at best sluggishly in any direction. It's probably in better shape, therefore. It is too late for this conference to affect either of those languages. The programming language conferences of the mid-70's did FORTRAN in. Rowe: Is there any language that will replace FORTRAN? Feldman: Fortran-8X. I believe the Fortran-8X effort will cap Fortran progress. It's my personal view that it will make the language sufficiently undesirable that by the late 80's, its [use] will fall off badly. That's my personal guess. [Peter] Deutsch: I'm not so sure about that. I don't think Common Lisp is going to replace Lisp. Interlisp didn't eliminate Lisp. [Butler] Lampson: You perhaps may not realize just how awful Fortran-8X is. Deutsch: Ah, this is true. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ No comment, Donn Seeley University of Utah CS Dept donn@utah-cs.arpa 40 46' 6"N 111 50' 34"W (801) 581-5668 decvax!utah-cs!donn