So-Called Real Programmers and FORTRAN

From: Douglas H. Quebbeman <dquebbeman_at_acm.org>
Date: Fri Apr 26 13:06:28 2002

> > When you opened the box with your COCO, what useful work would it do with the
> > $399 you had just spent? Could you write a letter? Could you write and
> > compile a Fortran program?
>
> A REAL programmer can write a FORTRAN program in ANY language.
> There was a fairly good (even though Microsoft) BASIC interpreter in ROM.
> A REAL programmer could write a FORTRAN program with it.

Harrumph!

My Data Structures prof lamented the fact (by his observation)
that most people write Pascal in its FORTRAN subset...

My first computer language was ALFIE,

    Algebraic Language For Interactive Environments

on the CDC 6500 at Purdue. It was a superset of BASIC that
most notably inluded FORTRAN FORMATted I/O (READ & WRITE
when issued with a line number reference were FORTRAN
style, the line number cntaining a FORMAT statement).

Good Morning! <ding><ding> This is ALFIE! <ding><ding>

<ding> Teletype ASR33 bell.

-dq
Received on Fri Apr 26 2002 - 13:06:28 BST