Re: Larkin, Power BASIC cannot be THAT good:

Martin Brown wrote:

I always recall IBM's FORTRAN G compiler which was so uncertain of its world view that the result of a successful compilation was:
NO DIAGNOSTICS GENERATED?

Debug showed that the string length of the message was miscounted and the trailing NUL was being printed as "?". Rumour had it that their change procedures made it too onerous to correct this minor cosmetic fault.

Anyway, they were too busy debugging Fortran H--really an amazing compiler when it worked, but, *ahem* not their most robust offering. When I was an undergraduate, I learned Fortran 77 using Fortran G and H, debugging somebody else's published code for radiative transfer in interstellar giant molecular clouds. It eventually worked, amazingly enough--though I never did get that good at Fortran.

(I almost met John Backus once, does that count?) ;)

Cheers

Phil Hobbs
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Larkin, Power BASIC cannot be THAT good:
    ... world view that the result of a successful compilation was: ... When I was an undergraduate, I learned Fortran 77 using Fortran G and H, ... I heard both Shockley and Teller speak when I was a grad student. ... inventor of dynamic memory. ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
  • Re: Larkin, Power BASIC cannot be THAT good:
    ... world view that the result of a successful compilation was: ... When I was an undergraduate, I learned Fortran 77 using Fortran G and H, ... I had lunch with Walter Brattain. ... I heard both Shockley and Teller speak when I was a grad student. ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
  • Re: Larkin, Power BASIC cannot be THAT good:
    ... world view that the result of a successful compilation was: ... Debug showed that the string length of the message was miscounted and ... they were too busy debugging Fortran H--really an amazing ... When I was an undergraduate, I learned Fortran 77 using Fortran G and H, ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
  • Re: Larkin, Power BASIC cannot be THAT good:
    ... John Larkin wrote: ... world view that the result of a successful compilation was: ... When I was an undergraduate, I learned Fortran 77 using Fortran G and H, debugging somebody else's published code for radiative transfer in interstellar giant molecular clouds. ... The guy who designed the first H-bomb used to work at Watson too--Dick Garwin. ...
    (sci.electronics.design)