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For all the mentions of FORTRAN in the description of other languages, it's a real surprise that FORTRAN doesn't rate a mention of its own -- though there are c
by rst 7y ago
For all the mentions of FORTRAN in the description of other languages, it's a real surprise that FORTRAN doesn't rate a mention of its own -- though there are corners of the world where it's still in use.
It's notable not only for being the Lingua Franca of scientific computing through at least the '80s, but also for breaking ground in programming language technology, starting right at the beginning -- the Fortran I compiler, for the IBM 704 in 1957, was the first to have an optimizer (and the technical papers on that compiler introduced terminology which has since become standard to the field -- e.g. "basic block").
- kjs3 7y agoIf you leave the HN/SV bubble, you find huge amounts of Fortran. It's still plays a significant role in scientific computing. If you lost track of it in the '80s, you might be interested that the language had major updates in '90, '95, '03, '08 and 2018. It's just not a part of the world of cat pix sharing websites and innumerable "Foo of Bar" startups. Same with COBOL.
- couchridr 7y agoOne thing I credit COBOL with is the use of descriptive variable naming. In FORTRAN you see variables named i, j, x etc (just look at Numerical Recipes) but in COBOL you see TOTAL_MONTH_SALES and the like. It is considered good style and “self-documenting” to do that today.
- kjs3 7y agoCOBOL was intended from the start to be "self-documenting" and English-like with the thinking being that it could be used by 'non-programmers' to create business logic. Not sure that I buy it achieved that goal, but it was the intent.