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From: "Stephen Fuld" <SFuld@alumni.cmu.edu.invalid>
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: ALTER, ASSIGN and labels-as-values
Date: Tue, 28 May 2024 04:20:51 -0000 (UTC)
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MitchAlsup1 wrote:

> Stephen Fuld wrote:
> 
> > John Savard wrote:

snip 

> > > 
> > > I find this to be an example of incredibly irresponsible language
> > > design.
> 
> 
> > Was it irresponsible in Fortran?
> 
> What appears irresponsible in 2024, with 5GHz CPUs and TBs of main
> memory internet connected and used not for computing but for
> leisure, is not what would look irresponsible with 5Khz CPUs with
> 64KB of main memory and no outside communications.

Just to be clear, I don't think it was irresponsible in either
language.  There were reasons for it, and perhaps they were good ones,
at least for some target architetures.  But clearly over time, as you
say, they were proven to be bad (not irresponsible) decisions, and the
features in both languages were deprecated than, I believe, removed.

My point in mentioning Fortran is that semantically both languages had
essentially equivalent features, yet John singled out COBOL for being
irresoinsible.




-- 
 - Stephen Fuld 
(e-mail address disguised to prevent spam)