Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!think!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!decvax!ima!johnl From: johnl@ima.ISC.COM (John R. Levine) Newsgroups: comp.compilers Subject: Re: What makes a language popular? Message-ID: <2482@ames.arpa> Date: Tue, 11-Aug-87 16:00:38 EDT Article-I.D.: ames.2482 Posted: Tue Aug 11 16:00:38 1987 Date-Received: Thu, 13-Aug-87 07:11:16 EDT References: <331@hubcap.UUCP> <627@ima.ISC.COM> <638@ima.ISC.COM> <644@ima.ISC.COM> Reply-To: msf@amelia.UUCP (Michael S. Fischbein) Followup-To: comp.lang.misc Organization: NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton VA Lines: 34 Approved: compilers@ima.UUCP In article <644@ima.ISC.COM> Duncan C White writes: > >How many people, when asked a question about PASCAL's syntax, will >say "hang on while I get out my copy of the ISO standard"... and >how many will reach for their Jensen and Wirth ? Well, we don't use much Pascal here, and we don't have many arguments about C (not too many C programmers here). But we DO do a lot of FORTRAN. When problems in porting a program between machines come up, we DO reach for the ANSI/ISO/FIPS standard (all the same document) to figure out who was right and who was wrong (as far as it being FORTRAN that is; most of the "wrong" stuff is an extension of the standard). FORTRAN of course, may be different (:-)) from other languages; particularly it doesn't have a K&R or J&W equivalent. mike Michael Fischbein msf@prandtl.nas.nasa.gov ...!seismo!decuac!csmunix!icase!msf These are my opinions and not necessarily official views of any organization. [I suppose it helps that the Fortran standard is quite readable, unlike, say, the PL/I standard. This discussion is too far afield from compilers, so I'm sending it to comp.lang.misc. -John] -- Send compilers articles to ima!compilers or, in a pinch, to Levine@YALE.ARPA Plausible paths are { ihnp4 | decvax | cbosgd | harvard | yale | cca}!ima Please send responses to the originator of the message -- I cannot forward mail accidentally sent back to compilers. Meta-mail to ima!compilers-request -- John R. Levine, Cambridge MA, +1 617 492 3869 { ihnp4 | decvax | cbosgd | harvard | yale }!ima!johnl, Levine@YALE.something The Iran-Contra affair: None of this would have happened if Ronald Reagan were still alive.