Old Fortran Humour

JohnNichols · ‎09-07-2019

Dear Steve:

I was reading a book on Matrix Structural Analysis written in the early 1970s?. The book had some code in Fortran IV. The book even includes a brief section on how to code Fortran.

But the author offered the advice that Basic was preferred as Fortran was not suited to matrix analysis

I kid you not. I immediately thought of you

Got to love the 70s

John

Ibrahim_K_ · ‎09-07-2019

Does the author have a Polish name? (Serious) I had a copy of a similar hardbound book.

I have a not-so-old (at least for me) book (1996). It has some quotes which may amuse participants here:

"The most important thing in the programming language is the name. A language will not succeed without a good name. I have recently invented a very good name and I am looking for a suitable language." [D.E.KNUTH]

"I do not know what the [favorite] language of the year 2000 will be like, but I know it will be called FORTRAN." [unknown]

I. Konuk

Steve_Lionel · ‎09-07-2019

That quote about the "language of the year 2000" was by C. Anthony "Tony" Hoare.

JohnNichols · ‎09-08-2019

From Professor Hoare:

I call it my billion-dollar mistake. It was the invention of the null reference in 1965. At that time, I was designing the first comprehensive type system for references in an object oriented language (ALGOL W). My goal was to ensure that all use of references should be absolutely safe, with checking performed automatically by the compiler. But I couldn't resist the temptation to put in a null reference, simply because it was so easy to implement. This has led to innumerable errors, vulnerabilities, and system crashes, which have probably caused a billion dollars of pain and damage in the last forty years.

I have a class of 35 I am teaching at the moment -- 3 have done javascript and the rest null. They do not know what a Rasp PI is

We are creating a class of interesting hunters and gatherers

John

JohnNichols · ‎09-08-2019

Sorry not sure about the authors name: I scanned 10 books in 10 minutes looking for some code.

JohnNichols · ‎09-08-2019

Remember when:

IF (TR) 930,950,930

Ibrahim_K_ · ‎09-09-2019

Nichols, John wrote:
Remember when:
IF (TR) 930,950,930

John:

I am shamed! I am right now working with old code with many arithmetic IFs. Intel compiler compiles without any complain. I do not know how long. Therefore, I am working hard to reform the code.