3 ms·

> The world is better with a Fortran-based social network client in it If you don't mind me asking, why is the world better with more Fortran-based software?

FormerLabFred 8mo ago
Our modern languages are built on it, and it’s incredibly fast, so it deserves to be kept alive. We owe a great deal to the people who wrote it in the 1950s I guess
- embedding-shape 8mo ago
  > Our modern languages are built on it It's part of the lineage, yeah, probably started with Algol though? Fast I guess is always nice, but I'm not sure that's enough to keep it alive solely for that, at least to me.
  - mathieudombrock 8mo ago
    I think the best answer you're really going to get here is that it's cool and fun to learn and use old languages.
    - embedding-shape 8mo ago
      I'd agree with all of those reasons! I do so myself as well, was just specifically curious about the "The world is better with a Fortran-based social network client in it" part. Don't get me wrong, I've spent too many nights learning "dead" languages too, but never with the idea that the world would be better if I published more code in these dead languages, it's just for my own gratification and learnings.
- mountainriver 8mo ago
  This thread makes me happy
  - johnisgood 8mo ago
    I know right! I was pleasantly surprised. It has to be one of the greatest news I have heard in a while.
- hedora 8mo ago
  I came here to suggest COBOL as a better fit, then saw your comment a few levels up in this thread. Out of curiosity, does your implementation use CODASYL? (For people that don't pay much attention to historical software systems, most CODASYL implementations were similar to JSON document databases, so going that way isn't as crazy as it sounds.)
  - FormerLabFred 8mo ago
    Great comment! Thanks! No CODASYL, the JSON parser is hand-rolled Fortran with a depth-tracking key scanner CODASYL not a crazy direction for the feed composer Got more depth to explore here, still early :)
    - hedora 8mo ago
      CODASYL is deeply integrated with COBOL; I'm not sure it ever even worked with fortran. (I was asking about the new COBOL version you mentioned.)

FormerLabFred 8mo ago

Our modern languages are built on it, and it’s incredibly fast, so it deserves to be kept alive. We owe a great deal to the people who wrote it in the 1950s I guess

embedding-shape 8mo ago
> Our modern languages are built on it It's part of the lineage, yeah, probably started with Algol though? Fast I guess is always nice, but I'm not sure that's enough to keep it alive solely for that, at least to me.
- mathieudombrock 8mo ago
  I think the best answer you're really going to get here is that it's cool and fun to learn and use old languages.
  - embedding-shape 8mo ago
    I'd agree with all of those reasons! I do so myself as well, was just specifically curious about the "The world is better with a Fortran-based social network client in it" part. Don't get me wrong, I've spent too many nights learning "dead" languages too, but never with the idea that the world would be better if I published more code in these dead languages, it's just for my own gratification and learnings.
mountainriver 8mo ago
This thread makes me happy
- johnisgood 8mo ago
  I know right! I was pleasantly surprised. It has to be one of the greatest news I have heard in a while.
hedora 8mo ago
I came here to suggest COBOL as a better fit, then saw your comment a few levels up in this thread. Out of curiosity, does your implementation use CODASYL? (For people that don't pay much attention to historical software systems, most CODASYL implementations were similar to JSON document databases, so going that way isn't as crazy as it sounds.)
- FormerLabFred 8mo ago
  Great comment! Thanks! No CODASYL, the JSON parser is hand-rolled Fortran with a depth-tracking key scanner CODASYL not a crazy direction for the feed composer Got more depth to explore here, still early :)
  - hedora 8mo ago
    CODASYL is deeply integrated with COBOL; I'm not sure it ever even worked with fortran. (I was asking about the new COBOL version you mentioned.)