Path: ...!news.roellig-ltd.de!news.mb-net.net!open-news-network.org!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: The Natural Philosopher Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.os.linux.misc Subject: Re: The joy of FORTRAN Date: Fri, 18 Oct 2024 11:25:50 +0100 Organization: A little, after lunch Lines: 29 Message-ID: References: <20241014080601.00007478@gmail.com> <38fb5a91-5d00-be42-4bfe-2a05232a82c1@example.net> <1420907830.750803935.503389.peter_flass-yahoo.com@news.eternal-september.org> <20241017090224.000072ce@gmail.com> <20241017203051.3143245f5330ac675cc1c166@127.0.0.1> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Date: Fri, 18 Oct 2024 12:25:50 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="b73195a447ef9ba3d285682683fd0860"; logging-data="3416620"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1+arNE1W0UZ7sZjSLt7SxsgRH1XzfMQ7Uk=" User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird Cancel-Lock: sha1:jrXQMAL16EGrQxJzGcfAqC/YtGw= Content-Language: en-GB In-Reply-To: Bytes: 3059 On 18/10/2024 07:15, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote: > On 10/18/24 12:17 AM, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote: >> On Thu, 17 Oct 2024 23:50:46 -0400, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote: >> >>> The need for it has been 'depricated'. However it was one of the more >>> confusing bits of the language. You can still see vestiges of it in >>> some Python, even Pascal, fine-formatting commands however. >> >> C did it better. That’s why so many other languages copied the C-style >> printf language, not Fortran’s FORMAT system. > >   No complaint - 'C' is *good*. > >   Of course it WAS 'evolutionary' ... BCPL became 'B' >   which became 'C' ... plenty of time for refinements. > >   Somewhere I have a BCPL compiler ... gotta hunt ..... Didnt COBOL have a PIC command? You set up a fixed width template and COBOL would slice and dice the data to fit it. -- "If you don’t read the news paper, you are un-informed. If you read the news paper, you are mis-informed." Mark Twain