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

[Rich Alderson]

"Craig A. Berry" <craigberry at nospam.mac.com> writes:

> On 4/13/22 6:54 PM, Bob Gezelter wrote:

>> FORTRAN II (IBM 1620, circa 1960, 20K digits of storage) had full
>> subroutines and functions.

> OK.  I read the Wikipedia article wrong, specifically with regard to
> functions and subroutines.  The fact they had them doesn't mean they
> were used.

>> Admittedly, many of these codes were not written to modern engineering
>> standards, but one can decode them. Been there, done that (both in modern
>> times, and when I was an undergraduate).

> Right.  And of course you can decode a 40,000-line program with no
> comments and 6-digit identifiers.  But it's work.  Arguably not worth
> the effort 10 years after they were written, much less 50.

FORTRAN IV was my first language, on an IBM 1401, in 1969.  Functions and
subroutines were actively encouraged.

If you knew what you were talking about you might be dangerous.

-- 
Rich Alderson					  news at alderson.users.panix.com
      Audendum est, et veritas investiganda; quam etiamsi non assequamur,
	  omnino tamen proprius, quam nunc sumus, ad eam perveniemus.
									--Galen