Re: The joy of FORTRAN

On Thu, 27 Feb 2025 08:04:48 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:

I didn’t do any courses on it, but I got into it anyway, since pretty
much any online work these days is going to involve a database at some
point.
 
Interfacing to SQL from a high-level language like Python is actually
quite pleasant.

My entry was with DB2 using embedded SQL. What a joy. 'db2 prep' turns
foo.sqc into foo.c and a bind file. foo.c is then compiled as usual. The
problem is foo.bnd has to be bound to the database in question and the
version of the executable and bind file must match. This led to repeated
conversations with support.

Support. I put your new revision in place and it won't run.
Programmer. Did you bind the bnd file?
Support. "Oh shit" as they slink away.



That was legacy stuff and would have been painful to change. CLI is a lot
more flexible.