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John W. Backus, 82, Fortran Developer, Dies
The New York Times ^
| March 20, 2007
| STEVE LOHR
Posted on 03/20/2007 7:10:36 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
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To: dfwgator
Computer Science without FORTRAN and COBOL is like birthday cake without ketchup and mustard.
:)
Used to teach Fortran 77 in the late 80's/early 90's. It was taught at that time as a Computer Science course though the biggest group of my students were studying Meteorology. I knew Fortran as an Electrical Engr undergrad, which I believe was the dominant group of people in the same class just a few years earlier. By the time I was teaching Fortran I was using C++ and APL for my work. A good APL programmer can write a program in one line, though nobody else will be able to read it.
21
posted on
03/20/2007 7:32:37 AM PDT
by
posterchild
(1/365th Irish)
To: PBRSTREETGANG
That is an Infinite Do Loop.
22
posted on
03/20/2007 7:32:59 AM PDT
by
bmwcyle
(Freep Fox they drop the ball on GOE)
To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
Fortran bump.
I am too young to have had to implement Fortran using punch cards, but Fortran 77 was the second language I learned (learned MATLAB first), and then "moved on" to C++. Now that the newest incarnation of Fortran has interoperability with C and supports OOP, I may go back to it (in a way) to have access to all of the libraries.
RIP John Backus.
23
posted on
03/20/2007 7:36:29 AM PDT
by
M203M4
(Ignorance of basic math underlies economic ignorance and helps fuel socialism.)
To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
R.I.P
Bump
24
posted on
03/20/2007 7:36:39 AM PDT
by
Fiddlstix
(Warning! This Is A Subliminal Tagline! Read it at your own risk!(Presented by TagLines R US))
To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
I will dim my monitor in his honor.
Former COBOL PL/I and 360 Assembler programmer.
I still use the backs of old "Hollerinth" (punch) cards for notes when I want to scare my co-workers.
To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
The IBM 650 Magnetic Drum Calculator
****************************************EXCERPT****************************************
The 650 was a true general-purpose computer, the natural evolution of the CPC (Card Programmed Calculator) to a stored-program computer with a full set of decimal arithmetic, logical, and control instructions, plus (later) the ability to handle alphabetic data. It was initially programmed in machine language, then in SOAP (Symbolic Optimal Assembly Program), its native optimizing assembler (if "optimizing assembler" strikes you as an oxymoron, keep reading). SOAP was written in 1955 at Watson Lab by Stan Poley [65]; it was not the first assembler, but it was close (credit for that usually goes to Nat Rochester's assembler for the IBM 701 in 1954).
By 1957 a FORTRAN compiler (FORTRANSIT) was available (which compiled FORTRAN into SOAP; a native FORTRAN compiler appeared in 1959). (You will recall that FORTRAN itself was the child of Columbia University and Watson Lab alumnus John Backus.)
26
posted on
03/20/2007 7:40:15 AM PDT
by
Ernest_at_the_Beach
(The DemonicRATS believe ....that the best decisions are always made after the fact.)
To: YankeeGirl
I still use the backs of old "Hollerinth" (punch) cards for notes when I want to scare my co-workers.Where the heck do you get them? Or, have you carefully preserved a stash all these years?
I loved them for note taking. They were a convenient size, easy to carry around, made great book marks, etc. They also didn't curl, unlike lots of index cards one gets today.
27
posted on
03/20/2007 7:40:43 AM PDT
by
Brujo
(Quod volunt, credunt.)
To: sitetest
I used to dream in FORTRAN.
Once had a vivid dream (nightmare) I still remember 20 years later. My job as a sysadmin was to keep a Microvax II running. (in real life) In my dream, if it went down, I was responsible for keeping the programs running. I had to read the fanfold paper and memorize the code, and then process it, verbally announcing each variable change. If a loop fell on a pagebreak, I had to repeatedly forget the other page and swap in the new page but still keep track of all variables. It went on all night. I think I had a fever.
28
posted on
03/20/2007 7:41:19 AM PDT
by
posterchild
(1/365th Irish)
To: YankeeGirl
Punch cards fit nicely in my suit vest pockets....I had a good supply when I retired but have run out of them.....
29
posted on
03/20/2007 7:42:27 AM PDT
by
Ernest_at_the_Beach
(The DemonicRATS believe ....that the best decisions are always made after the fact.)
To: ken21
Do stand in the "dolt" corner then....
30
posted on
03/20/2007 7:44:36 AM PDT
by
Freeport
To: nnn0jeh
31
posted on
03/20/2007 7:45:15 AM PDT
by
kalee
(The offenses we give, we write in the dust; Those we take, we write in marble. JHuett)
To: posterchild
ROFL...Avirtual paging nightmare.....LOL!
32
posted on
03/20/2007 7:45:19 AM PDT
by
Ernest_at_the_Beach
(The DemonicRATS believe ....that the best decisions are always made after the fact.)
To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
RIP.
33
posted on
03/20/2007 7:47:53 AM PDT
by
reagan_fanatic
(I have a big carbon footprint and I'm not afraid to use it.)
To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
Excuse me I have to down to the center to see if my batch ran this time then put my 2000 fan fold pages through the burster.
34
posted on
03/20/2007 7:49:18 AM PDT
by
AU72
To: PBRSTREETGANG
I had a flashback to some excruciatingly long COBOL programs when I read your DO LOOP quip. Aack. Never did program in FORTRAN, did alot of COBOL.
To: ken21
i hated fortran!I too long ago took a course in Basic and disliked it for the disconnect between the code and what it was doing. Then I took a course in Fortran and liked it for its making me know what the code was doing.
36
posted on
03/20/2007 7:49:50 AM PDT
by
decimon
To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
All posts in BNF, please.
BNF = Backus Normal (or Naur) Form.
37
posted on
03/20/2007 7:54:05 AM PDT
by
LIConFem
(Thompson/Hunter 2008!)
To: reagan_fanatic
38
posted on
03/20/2007 7:57:05 AM PDT
by
Ernest_at_the_Beach
(The DemonicRATS believe ....that the best decisions are always made after the fact.)
To: Brujo
I had a small, dwindling supply. Just a handful left now.
They'll go the way of all the reel-to-reel back-ups we have with no reel-to-reel tape reader!
My first IT job was actually typing in cobol pgms from cards into CICS/ICCF files. When I think back on it, I can't figure out why we couldn't import them from the cards??? Maybe it was just JCL?? Can't remember now....mind going....
I had a pair of gerbils when I was in college. I threw my used punch cards in their tank for them to use as bedding. They could turn dozens of cards to fluff in no time! (Also toilet paper and paper towel rolls, which the played in first then gnawed up.).
I remember students asking if it was alright to punch their COBOL pgms on the PL/I cards (we tried to keep them color coded).
To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
The IBM 650 Magnetic Drum Calculator.....
This big iron picture brought back "fond" memories of the Burroughs D-880 I worked on in the 60's. Magnetic drums with their constantly crashing "flying" heads digging trenches in the surfaces, an hour of punched paper tape re-programming every time we lost power (often) and the no-break power system failed (always), and dozens of 4" muffin cooling fans that we oiled with hypodermic syringes. All this and about 8K of memory, or less, I don't exactly remember.
40
posted on
03/20/2007 8:05:23 AM PDT
by
MelonFarmerJ
(Proudly voting Republican Conservative in every election since 1964)
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