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Ah, a Fortran joke. That's not just "technologists". That's old farts. (In Fortran 66, variables didn't have to be declared. They would be integer if they bega
by jfengel 1y ago
Ah, a Fortran joke. That's not just "technologists". That's old farts.
(In Fortran 66, variables didn't have to be declared. They would be integer if they began with I, J, K, L, M, or N. Otherwise it would be floating point [REAL, in Fortran parlance]. To this day it's why for loops usually use "i". With the bonus joke that God is real unless declared integer.)
- spauldo 1y agoI think that's still the case, even in the latest FORTRAN standard. It's usually considered good practice to turn it off with IMPLICIT NONE.
- mkl 1y agoMaths is the reason for loops use i. Fortran defines variables starting with those letters to be integers because maths has used those letters for iteration, counting, indexing, etc. for centuries. It was natural for a formula translating system to follow suit.