[Info-vax] Programming languages on VMS

[Bill Gunshannon]

On 01/24/2018 08:42 AM, Paul Sture wrote:
> On 2018-01-24, Arne Vajhøj <arne at vajhoej.dk> wrote:
>> On 1/23/2018 3:17 PM, Phillip Helbig (undress to reply) wrote:
>>> In article <p45v88$1u3q$1 at gioia.aioe.org>, =?UTF-8?Q?Arne_Vajh=c3=b8j?=
>>> <arne at vajhoej.dk> writes:
>>>> Languages needed for old stuff:
>>>>
>>>> Fortran - HP/VSI, will be ported
>>>
>>>> Languages needed for new stuff:
>>>
>>> Hey!  One can write new code in Fortran!
>>
>> You can.
>>
>> But if you look at 1000 new applications how many of them will
>> actually be in Fortran?
> 
> If you look at the scientific and High Performance world, Fortran
> is still in use.

Some embedded stuff, too, believe it or not.

> 
> There is of course lots of existing Fortran 77 code, but Fortran 77
> apparently still has a distinct performance advantage over later
> versions, so it is used for new programs as well.

Just like I said about COBOL.  It isn't that languages like COBOL and
Fortran are decreasing, it is that there are dozens of new languages
du jour that people with little knowledge of IT think are cool and so
they write billions of lines of crap skewing the scale against serious
languages.  Or do you think "Candy Crush Saga" and "Forge of Empires"
constitute serious IT?

> 
>> My guess: most likely none, maybe one or two.
> 
> Probably more if you confine your search to the sector which uses
> Fortran already.
> 

I have pointed out in the past a couple of the largest IT Systems in
use today that are both in COBOL.  And, let's not forget Mumps (now
known as ANSI M) that may be the most used language of them all.

bill