[Info-vax] Programming languages on VMS

[Jan-Erik Soderholm]

Den 2018-01-24 kl. 17:52, skrev DaveFroble:
> Jan-Erik Soderholm wrote:
>> Den 2018-01-24 kl. 16:36, skrev DaveFroble:
>>> John Reagan wrote:
>>>> On Wednesday, January 24, 2018 at 8:49:22 AM UTC-5, 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.
>>>>>
>>>>> 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.
>>>>>
>>>>>> My guess: most likely none, maybe one or two.
>>>>> Probably more if you confine your search to the sector which uses
>>>>> Fortran already.
>>>>>
>>>>> -- 
>>>>> In 1911, Hollerith's firm was merged with several other producers of
>>>>> specialized business equipment to produce CTR, the Computing-Tabulating
>>>>> -Recording Company. The "Computing" part referred to weighing scales -
>>>>> an interesting example of how language evolves over time.
>>>>
>>>> There is a new Fortran frontend for LLVM named 'flang'.
>>>> https://github.com/flang-compiler/flang
>>>>
>>>
>>> John, you know a bit about languages.  Let me ask a question.
>>>
>>> I'll preface the question by admitting that I view much of the "new 
>>> languages" as some people who just want to "re-invent the wheel".
>>>
>>> Do the "new languages" actually present more and better capabilities?
>>>
>>
>> Is a screwdriver better then a hammer? I would guess that you
>> understand that the answer is that "it depends"...
>>
>> In our case, Cobol is "best" for our core applications since it
>> gives smooth and fast applications for our end-users. At the same
>> time, Python is "best" for reporting and web-facing tools since
>> it has the builtin tools to make *that* development easier.
>>
>> It is a little weird that you hae to ask that quesstins at all.
> 
> Actually, not.
> 
> While useful, your Python is more a large number of library routines, 
> implemented in some other language, than it is a programming language.

OK, fine. You know Python better than me. Thansk for the clarification.

> 
> I guess we could argue symantics about what is and what is not a 
> "language", since much the same could be said about a compiler.  In fact, 
> much of what the Basic compiler does is invoke library routines, which is 
> one reason for less than stellar performance.
> 
> So I think the question is valid.

Anyone should understand that tool "A" is better sometimes while
tool "B" is better in other cases.