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

[Bill Gunshannon]

On 4/13/22 19:51, Bob Gezelter wrote:
> On Wednesday, April 13, 2022 at 4:10:22 PM UTC-4, Simon Clubley wrote:
>>  From https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/13/climate_mit_fortran/
>>
>> |CLiMA made the determination that old climate models, many of which were
>> |built 50 years ago and coded in Fortran, had to go if there was going to be
>> |any progress toward better climate models. Now that he's working at MIT on
>> |the CGC project, he's realized that "traditional climate models are in a
>> |language [MIT] students can't even read."
>>
>> Can't read the latest symbol-based (instead of word-based) language
>> without lots of study ? Ok, that's a fair thing to say.
>>
>> But Fortran ??? Wow.
>>
>> (And this is MIT!).
>>
>> Simon.
>> , b
>> -- 
>> Simon Clubley, clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
>> Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.
> Simon,
> 
> I agree wholeheartedly with Bill.
> 
> FORTRAN, specifically ANSI FORTRAN-66/77 is a very simple language to lean by present standards.
> 
> If the story is not total BS, particularly from MIT students, it is a source of despair.
> 
> Today, it is no problem to do a module by module rewrite of FORTRAN into C. Frankly, it has not been a serious difficulty since the time of the original VAX FORTRAN, nearly a half century ago.

Or you run it thru F2C and save the time for other tasks.  The big
question would be why would they be converting it to anything?
There is nothing wrong with Fortran unless the task changed from
engineering to accounts receivable.  And there are plenty of compilers
still available,

> 
> I would suggest they contact someone who is familiar with the subject matter.
> 
> - Bob Gezelter, http://www.rlgsc.com

bill