Status Updates From Using ANS FORTRAN (NIST Han...

This is a rather interesting aside into historical FORTRAN. The trials of the committee and the "simple compilers" which were its bane make for great bedtime reading. Not to mention the struggles and non standard extensions or illegal workarounds needed to get to that illusive unicorn, "machine independent code". The way the "Standard" is treated like a person is great fun too.

This is a rather interesting aside into historical FORTRAN. The trials of the committee and the "simple compilers" which were its bane make for great bedtime reading. Not to mention the struggles and non standard extensions or illegal workarounds needed to get to that illusive unicorn, "machine independent code". The way the "Standard" is treated like a person is great fun too.

"If a program or package (the words are used interchangeably) is to have a long life and to be of wide application in its field, it is essential for it to be easily moved from one machine to another. It used to be common to dismiss such movement with the statement, ‘There is no such thing as a machine-independent program.’ Nonetheless, a great many packages do now move from one machine to another"