Re: [TUHS] RIP John Backus

Let me offer a somewhat different perspective on FORTRAN.  When an airplane is designed, the design undergoes a number of engineering tests under simulation at the design stage.  Many countries require that these simulation runs be archived for the lifetime of the airplane so that, in the event of a crash, they can be run again with the conditions experienced by the aircraft to see whether the problem was in the design.  Airplanes commonly take 10 years from first design to first shipment.  And then are sold for 10 years or so.  And the planes can fly for up to 30 years after that.   So these tests need to be written in a computer language that can be run 50 years in the future -- that is a stipulation of the archive requirement.  There really aren't any alternative languages that I'm aware of that could meet this criterion -- that's particularly true today, when there is a sea change from serial to parallel programming and it's hard to pick a winner with five decades of life ahead of it... Does anyone have any candidates? Steve