[Info-vax] The Future of Programming Languages and Web browsers

[glen herrmannsfeldt]

Neil Rieck <n.rieck at sympatico.ca> wrote:
(snip)
 
> I, too, am not a big fan of BASIC but DEC-BASIC (or whatever they call
> it today) contains features way beyond what a beginner would ever use.
> First off, there is no interpreter on any platform higher than VAX.
> Built-in support for RMS (sequential, relative and index) was an
> unexpected surprise. There is no requirement for line numbers and an
> option statement will require you declare all your variables (aka no
> kid stuff). MAT (matrix) statements are borrowed from FORTRAN and
> fixed size (mapped) strings aid in laying out records. I have become
> fond of doing file-io routines in block statement like this:

What do you mean "borrowed from Fortran?"  

MAT goes pretty far back, maybe to the beginning of BASIC.  
I first used in the HP 2000 BASIC in 1972.  Fortran didn't have 
matrix operations until Fortran 90.  Maybe Fortran borrowed them
from BASIC.

PL/I had array operations from the beginning, but, like many other
language, array operations are element by element.  Matrix multiply
and inverse were common library routines, but not part of the
language or standard library until at least Fortran 90. (Maybe later.)

-- glen