So-Called Real Programmers and FORTRAN

From: Douglas H. Quebbeman <dquebbeman_at_acm.org>
Date: Fri Apr 26 14:20:35 2002

> "Douglas H. Quebbeman" wrote:
>
> > My Data Structures prof lamented the fact (by his observation)
> > that most people write Pascal in its FORTRAN subset...
>
> 10 C WHAT SUBSET IS THAT?

(* The subset wherein everything is type in UPPER CASE
   and no variable names were longer than six characters. *)

> 20 C MY GRIPE WITH PASCAL WAS THAT IT WAS ALL ONE PROGRAM
> 30 C EVERY FORTRAN AFTER II COULD HAVE MODULES DEFINED

(* Pascal had adherents early, but it remained a teaching
   language until the early 1980s. Although Turbo Pascal
   didn't permit modules, it did provide $INCLUDE files,
   and depending on the application area, you could often
   accomplish the same thing using includes. *)

> 40 C .NOR. COULD YOU EVER FIGURE OUT
> 50 C WHEN TO PUT A SEMI-COLEN .OR. .NOT. AT THE END OF A
> 60 C STATEMENT

(* Oh, IIRC, the semicolon is a STATEMENT TERMINATOR in Algol;
   in Pascal, it's statement seperator. That should make it clear. *)

> 100 STOP

END.


-Douglas Hurst Quebbeman (DougQ at ixnayamspayIgLou.com) [Call me "Doug"]
  Surgically excise the pig-latin from my e-mail address in order to reply
  "The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away." -Tom Waits
Received on Fri Apr 26 2002 - 14:20:35 BST