Re: Fortran Newbie

On 14 Jan 2006 06:10:46 -0800, chuckles <chuckleberryfinn@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote in <1137247846.542342.325670@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

> It seems to me that a language that old, still being actively used in
> engineering research and not being taught to CS students (at least in
> my university) is a scandal.

You're probably right <he says, trying to remain this side of
incoherent rage>. Part of the problem is that people don't realise that
FORTRAN has evolved (for one thing, it's now Fortran); they seem to get
stuck at the level they were introduced to it. Worse, they then pass this
(mis)information on. I had to interrupt a grad students' conversation in
the UCL HEP tearoom a few years ago (~2001) when one asserted, "Well,
you'd never use Fortran because it's limited to 6-character identifiers." !!!

--
Ivan Reid, Electronic & Computer Engineering, ___ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Ivan.Reid@[brunel.ac.uk|cern.ch] Room 40-1-B12, CERN
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".
.

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