Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!mailrus!uflorida!gatech!udel!burdvax!ubbpc!wgh
From: wgh@ubbpc.UUCP (William G. Hutchison)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: Why have FORTRAN 8x at all?
Summary: Thank yew fur yur support!
Keywords: FORTRAN PL/I kludge
Message-ID: <392@ubbpc.UUCP>
Date: 1 Nov 88 14:24:57 GMT
References: <388@ubbpc.UUCP> <16187@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <599@quintus.UUCP>
Organization: UNISYS CS, Blue Bell, PA
Lines: 31

In article <599@quintus.UUCP>, ok@quintus.uucp (Richard A. O'Keefe) writes:
> In article <16187@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> link@sag4.ssl.berkeley.edu (Richard Link) writes:
> >In article <388@ubbpc.UUCP> wgh@ubbpc.UUCP (William G. Hutchison) writes:
> >>why is there an effort to make up a new standard at all?
			[ illogical arguments deleted ]	
> I just wanted to make it clear that Hutchison was also being sensible.

Thanks! Glad to see somebody here thinking with neurons rather than their
glands!  You understood my point that there is no need to rewrite FORTRAN-77
code just because somebody proposes a "new, improved" vastly more complex
"standard".

 By the way, here is some more discussion on how Algol-60 was "improved":
Algol-60 was "improved" to Algol-68 by a committee and the result was an
embarrassing debacle.
 Algol-60 was really improved by Niklaus Wirth:
 Algol-60 -> Algol-W -> Pascal -> Modula -> Modula 2 -> ... -> ???
 
Note that real improvements in language design seem to come from individuals
or small groups, not large committees!

 More examples of real improvements (by individuals)

 BCPL -> B -> C -> C++

 Beware of committees of politicians bearing standards!

-- 
Bill Hutchison, DP Consultant	rutgers!cbmvax!burdvax!ubbpc!wgh
Unisys UNIX Portation Center	"What one fool can do, another can!"
P.O. Box 500, M.S. B121		Ancient Simian Proverb, quoted by
Blue Bell, PA 19424		Sylvanus P. Thompson, in _Calculus Made Easy_