[Info-vax] Programming languages on VMS

[DaveFroble]

Bill Gunshannon wrote:
> On 01/24/2018 11:47 AM, DaveFroble wrote:
>> Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>>> On 01/24/2018 10:36 AM, DaveFroble wrote:
>>>> 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?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> Some do, for particular things.  Try writing a mobile app in Fortran.
>>> But for much of the real work that drives business (like processing
>>> credit card transactions or computing actuary tables languages like
>>> COBOL and Fortran are still really the best choice.  The only thing
>>> driving the move away from them is academia's decision to drive the bus
>>> off a cliff rather than preparing students for entry into the IT world
>>> (their actual job!!) by not only not teaching the requisite languages
>>> but trying to sway students into believing the languages are dead and
>>> totally unused.
>>>
>>> bill
>>>
>>
>> While not very good at performance, compiler wasn't written for 
>> performance, Basic can do most of that stuff very well, and much more.
>>
>> Much the same comparison can be made with your "bus off a cliff" 
>> comment, when looking at "the professionals" here and their attitude 
>> toward Basic, right?
>>
> 
> Given what it was designed for BASIC was never taken seriously.  Even
> after ANSIfication it was still not overly practical as most versions
> were interpreted and not compiled. What data type of none-integer does
> BASIC support that can do calculations with decimals without the
> cumulative error common to floating point?
> 
> bill
> 

When talking about DEC Basic, it's not anything like prior implementations.


DATA_TYPES

   DECIMAL

      The DECIMAL(d,s) data type keyword specifies  packed  decimal  data.   A
      packed  decimal  value  has  a  specified  number  of  digits  (d) and a
      specified decimal point position (s).

Is that Ok ?


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David Froble                       Tel: 724-529-0450
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