Immutability of computer languages nee History of French

From: Jacques Guy (jguy_at_alphalink.com.au)
Date: 09/24/04 

Date: Fri, 24 Sep 2004 15:20:18 -0700

Mxsmanic wrote:
> The FORTRAN of 40 years ago will still
> compile cleanly today.

[about Fortan 90]

"Yet even with these dramatic enhancements to previous
versions of Fortran, an exceptionally high degree of backward
compatibility is maintained."
(http://www.sali.freeservers.com/engineering/fortran.html)

A "high degree of backward compatibility" is not full backward
compatibility.

Anyway, even FORTRAN IV was not backward-compatible:

"A FORTRAN II to FORTRAN IV translator was used to retain backward
 compatibility with earlier FORTRAN programs."

(http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/languages/fortran/ch1-1.html)

> In computerland, the more
> things change, the more they remain the same, and there's really nothing
> new under the sun.

Yeah, there is no evolution, since it's all Intelligent Design.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Immutability of computer languages nee History of French
    ... >> versions of Fortran, an exceptionally high degree of backward ... are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University. ... Herman Rubin, Department of Statistics, Purdue University ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Immutability of computer languages nee History of French
    ... an exceptionally high degree of backward ... > compatibility is maintained." ... The old FORTRAN stuff I've compiled under new compilers has compiled ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: SSP
    ... compatibility. ... But since I can't open a PMR / Requirement any more, ... have a support contract, I'd suggest your opening a PMR for this ... It makes sense for Fortran 66 or Fortran 77, ...
    (comp.lang.pl1)
  • Re: Compiling compaq visual fortran
    ... I am trying to compile a program written in Compacq Visual Fortran ... Is that because f77 has non compatibility problems with Compacq Visual ... the command to run in f77 compiler ...
    (comp.lang.fortran)