Re: The joy of FORTRAN

On 18/10/2024 07:15, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote:

On 10/18/24 12:17 AM, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:

On Thu, 17 Oct 2024 23:50:46 -0400, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote:
>

The need for it has been 'depricated'. However it was one of the more
confusing bits of the language. You can still see vestiges of it in
some Python, even Pascal, fine-formatting commands however.

>
C did it better. That’s why so many other languages copied the C-style
printf language, not Fortran’s FORMAT system.

    No complaint - 'C' is *good*.
    Of course it WAS 'evolutionary' ... BCPL became 'B'
   which became 'C' ... plenty of time for refinements.
    Somewhere I have a BCPL compiler ... gotta hunt .....

Didnt COBOL have a PIC command?
You set up a fixed width template and COBOL would slice and dice the data to fit it.
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