Path: csiph.com!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: rbowman Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc,alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: The joy of FORTRAN Date: 4 Oct 2024 22:47:30 GMT Lines: 19 Message-ID: References: <5mqdnZuGq4lgwm_7nZ2dnZfqnPSdnZ2d@earthlink.com> <36KdnVlGJu9VLW77nZ2dnZfqn_qdnZ2d@earthlink.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: individual.net haVjRx8V6atEYJaIMEP4dggLlu4NeBANNH+iqlDqGEv6wfFrDT Cancel-Lock: sha1:3XOhWzfEpA1anS+RxZNCcgV8D6A= sha256:gdx/6LpFfSw+qMVfZquQ0f3QXA9M1REzYdRgM5hJzlE= User-Agent: Pan/0.149 (Bellevue; 4c157ba) Xref: csiph.com comp.os.linux.misc:59109 alt.folklore.computers:227581 On Fri, 4 Oct 2024 20:13:27 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote: > A lot of what we do in programming/scripting is building one layer of > “abstract machine” on top of another, until we get to something > optimized for solving our particular problem. True, but many people using a high level abstraction like Python think of it as some sort of magic without realizing it's some poor old turtle slaving away one opcode at a time. (Okay, so it's a team of turtles these days). My FORTRAN IV course started with an examination of the System 360 architecture before getting to the first FORTRAN statement. I'm not sure that happens anymore. Some of the people I worked with who were in their 40s or 50s had a course using the 68HC11 microcontroller at UM but that was later dropped from the curriculum in favor of abstraction. The last I knew Java was the didactic language of choice for the CS people there.