Path: ...!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: Bob Eager Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.os.linux.misc Subject: Re: The joy of FORTRAN Date: 26 Feb 2025 18:20:40 GMT Lines: 30 Message-ID: References: <59CJO.19674$MoU3.15170@fx36.iad> <3hOdnWpQ649QMGr7nZ2dnZfqnPidnZ2d@earthlink.com> <1smdnSjX3YoxgWf7nZ2dnZfqn_idnZ2d@earthlink.com> <1396870532.749421730.052473.peter_flass-yahoo.com@news.eternal-september.org> <1976765442.762208809.808387.peter_flass-yahoo.com@news.eternal-september.org> <20250225130315.00004e34@gmail.com> <20250226100438.00006728@gmail.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: individual.net FODR0f8wrs6FFqu2P7OX6AbVNCc2JNjNla3ZxJqdkUdw++MMwm Cancel-Lock: sha1:lEwEIOWIJPSY08xepjfuOOmj5Rw= sha256:0n9L2071AX8sia4zxsC9tS8SrtJBficnfoDN+wHifA8= User-Agent: Pan/0.145 (Duplicitous mercenary valetism; d7e168a git.gnome.org/pan2) Bytes: 2773 On Wed, 26 Feb 2025 10:04:38 -0800, John Ames wrote: > On Wed, 26 Feb 2025 00:13:35 -0500 c186282 wrote: > >> > * (Having started on micros of the early '90s, the idea of a >> > computing environment where assembly isn't just a systems- >> > implementation thing but a first-class applications language is quite >> > intriguing to me...) >> >> Used to be a kinda main/common thing. >> >> Compilers were new and expensive. Apps were still kinda small. So, >> ASM was often The Way - and provided The Most fine control. > > Indeed - and the architectures were designed to facilitate it. 'Course, > as has been discussed, that eventually led to creeping featurism and > terminal over-engineering and finally birthed RISC design, but it's > interesting to think back on the period where there really was a happy > medium... One interesting tale about over-engineering (the VAX POLY instructions), from someone who really knows: http://simh.trailing-edge.com/docs/vax_poly.pdf -- Using UNIX since v6 (1975)... Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org