Hi Clem,
At 2023-06-12T18:39:32-0400, Clem Cole wrote:
> Apologies to TUHS - other than please don't think Fortran did not
> impact UNIX and its peers. We owe that community our jobs, and for
> creating the market in that we all would build systems and eventually
> improve.
Absolutely. Fortran (77) was the first language this weedhopper learned
after BASIC (which, while much despised by the sorts of people who
update jargon files, _also_ had early support in CSRC Unix). While I
intensely disliked the fixed-source format (a defect Fortran 90
remedied), I acquired it more easily than C, to the relief of the guys
on my class project team who already knew C and _hated_ Fortran.
My wisecrack was not meant as a derogation of Fortran in any way, but
rather as a sly (not really) allusion to a word also appearing in your
expansion of the COFF list's name as seen above...
Best regards to you and to Fortran, and a nod to the copy of
Metcalf/Reid/Cohen on my bookshelf,
Branden