[Info-vax] [OT] Current students apparently can't read Fortran code...

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 4/13/2022 6:37 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
> On 4/13/22 18:12, Grant Taylor wrote:
>> On 4/13/22 2:10 PM, Simon Clubley wrote:
>>> Can't read the latest symbol-based (instead of word-based) language 
>>> without lots of study ? Ok, that's a fair thing to say.
>>
>> There are a lot of things that can't be done at one point in time or 
>> another.  The trick is to learn them so that you can do them.
>>
>> I can see how / why an older long out of vogue language can't be read 
>> by newer / younger people.  But that ignorance, as in lack of 
>> knowledge, doesn't preclude people from learning.
>>
>> There is a point in every person's life when they can't read their 
>> native language.  They must learn it.  This is the natural order of 
>> things.
>>
>>> But Fortran ??? Wow.
>>
>> ~shrug~  out of vogue language
> 
> I would be more inclined to think the story is bs.  Fortran is a
> trivial language. Took me all of about three days to learn it
> (on an IBM Mainframe) back in 1980.  You might not be able to
> understand the task being done but the flow and function of the
> the program would not be difficult.

I agree.

If the code is actually very old then it must be Fortran
77 or 66.

If someone can program aka understand at least one
static typed compiled language *and* understand the
math behind it then they should be able to read the
code just fine.

Writing new code may require a little training.

And newer Fortran can be a lot more complex.

But as described it should be very readable.

Interesting though that they picked Julia. Many
sees it as an upcoming language for stuff like this,
but it is still a rather bold choice.

Arne