Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]

Groups > comp.lang.python > #58232

Re: Error Testing

Subject Re: Error Testing
From William Ray Wing <wrw@mac.com>
Date 2013-10-31 22:27 -0400
References (3 earlier) <mailman.1272.1382221693.18130.python-list@python.org> <52717d82$0$1677$e4fe514c@dreader35.news.xs4all.nl> <bdfaprFimg1U1@mid.individual.net> <586c9c5d-d0d4-44c7-8454-94dcfc128318@googlegroups.com> <bdfhkjFkd7qU1@mid.individual.net>
Newsgroups comp.lang.python
Message-ID <mailman.1905.1383275411.18130.python-list@python.org> (permalink)

Show all headers | View raw

On Oct 31, 2013, at 1:17 PM, Neil Cerutti <neilc@norwich.edu> wrote:

> On 2013-10-31, rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Thursday, October 31, 2013 8:50:27 PM UTC+5:30, Neil Cerutti wrote:
>>> wrote:
>>>> This suggests that Pascal went against established practice.
>>>> This is false. FORTRAN used = and that was a mistake caused by
>>>> the language being hacked together haphazardly.
>>> Respectfully, the designers of FORTRAN deserve more respect than
>>> that characterization accords.
>> 
>> ???
>> 
>> If I say: "My uncle -- a pilot -- knows more about flying
>> planes than the Wright brothers" am I disrespecting the Wright
>> brothers??
> 
> No, of course not.
> 
>> The state of art shifts with time. Fortran was more pioneering
>> than most languages that followed -- does not mean it got
>> everything right.
> 
> They obviously couldn't have gotten everything right; they had to
> work largely in a vaccuum. but in no sense were they haphazardly
> throwing syntax together. They designed it as well as anyone at
> the time knew how. It's stood the test of time, too. There's
> probably a lot more FORTRAN in use and maintained today than
> Wright Brothers airplane parts. ;)
> 

Actually, FORTRAN is probably responsible for more CPU cycles being executed even today than most other languages.  If you think about the fact that most large scientific simulation codes (weather forecasting, combustion modeling, finite-element modeling and so on), are still FORTRAN based, and that those are the codes that occupy multi-hundred-thousand-core petaflop class supper computers for weeks on end, you have to respect its longevity.

-Bill



>> From Backus Turing award speech:
>> 
>> Although I refer to conventional languages as "von Neumann
>> languages" to take note of their origin and style, I do not, of
>> course, blame the great mathematician for their complexity. In
>> fact, some might say that I bear some responsibility for that
>> problem.
>> 
>> http://www.thocp.net/biographies/papers/backus_turingaward_lecture.pdf
> 
> Thanks for that reference.
> 
> -- 
> Neil Cerutti
> -- 
> https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list

Back to comp.lang.python | Previous | Next — Previous in thread | Next in thread | Find similar | Unroll thread

Thread

Error Testing Scott Novinger <scnovinger@gmail.com> - 2013-10-19 05:23 -0700
  Re: Error Testing Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk> - 2013-10-19 13:37 +0100
    Re: Error Testing Scott Novinger <scnovinger@gmail.com> - 2013-10-19 06:34 -0700
      Re: Error Testing Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2013-10-20 00:42 +1100
      Re: Error Testing rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2013-10-19 09:22 -0700
        Re: Error Testing Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2013-10-20 09:28 +1100
          Re: Error Testing albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl (Albert van der Horst) - 2013-10-30 21:43 +0000
            Re: Error Testing Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2013-10-31 10:50 +1100
            Re: Error Testing Neil Cerutti <neilc@norwich.edu> - 2013-10-31 15:20 +0000
              Re: Error Testing Skip Montanaro <skip@pobox.com> - 2013-10-31 10:51 -0500
              Re: Error Testing rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2013-10-31 09:05 -0700
                Re: Error Testing Neil Cerutti <neilc@norwich.edu> - 2013-10-31 17:17 +0000
                Re: Error Testing William Ray Wing <wrw@mac.com> - 2013-10-31 22:27 -0400
                Re: Error Testing Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2013-11-01 08:32 +0000
                Re: Error Testing Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk> - 2013-11-01 03:25 +0000
                Re: Error Testing rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2013-10-31 20:42 -0700
                Re: Error Testing Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com> - 2013-11-01 10:51 -0400
                Re: Error Testing Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk> - 2013-11-01 15:07 +0000
                Re: Error Testing Denis McMahon <denismfmcmahon@gmail.com> - 2013-10-31 17:50 +0000
                Re: Error Testing rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2013-10-31 10:56 -0700
                Re: Error Testing Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2013-11-01 08:00 +1100
                Re: Error Testing Denis McMahon <denismfmcmahon@gmail.com> - 2013-10-31 22:59 +0000
                Re: Error Testing rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2013-10-31 20:50 -0700
                Re: Error Testing Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk> - 2013-11-01 09:39 +0000
            Re: Error Testing Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk> - 2013-11-01 02:00 +0000
        Re: Error Testing Ned Deily <nad@acm.org> - 2013-10-19 15:46 -0700
        Re: Error Testing Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2013-10-20 10:02 +1100
        Re: Error Testing Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com> - 2013-10-20 12:18 -0400
  Re: Error Testing Ned Batchelder <ned@nedbatchelder.com> - 2013-10-19 08:44 -0400
    Re: Error Testing Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> - 2013-10-19 08:57 -0400
      Re: Error Testing Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2013-10-20 00:04 +1100
      Re: Error Testing Ned Batchelder <ned@nedbatchelder.com> - 2013-10-19 09:07 -0400
        Re: Error Testing Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> - 2013-10-19 09:09 -0400
      Re: Error Testing Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk> - 2013-10-19 14:19 +0100
  Re: Error Testing Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2013-10-20 00:01 +1100
  Re: Error Testing David Robinow <drobinow@gmail.com> - 2013-10-19 14:08 -0400
  Re: Error Testing Tim Chase <tim@thechases.com> - 2013-10-19 13:31 -0500
  Re: Error Testing Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> - 2013-10-19 15:50 -0400
  What's wrong with Windows Command Prompt (was Re: Error Testing) Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> - 2013-10-19 16:35 -0400
  Re: What's wrong with Windows Command Prompt (was Re: Error Testing) Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2013-10-20 09:15 +1100
  Re: Error Testing Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2013-10-20 09:20 +1100
  Re: What's wrong with Windows Command Prompt (was Re: Error Testing) David Robinow <drobinow@gmail.com> - 2013-10-21 15:55 -0400
  Re: What's wrong with Windows Command Prompt (was Re: Error Testing) Tim Chase <python.list@tim.thechases.com> - 2013-10-21 15:29 -0500

csiph-web