"How John Backus’ Fortran Beat the Machine Code ‘Priesthood’" by David Cassel
https://thenewstack.io/how-john-backus-fortran-beat-machine-codes-priesthood/
"John Backus one of the founding forefathers of early computer
programming, and in many ways set the stage for modern programming languages."
"Backus led the team that developed the Fortran programming language in 1957, still touted today as “the first high-level programming language” on web pages at IBM. As the Associated Press wrote — half a century
later — in an obituary for Backus, “Prior to Fortran, computers had to be meticulously ‘hand-coded’ — programmed in the raw strings of digits that triggered actions inside the machine.”"
On Wednesday, July 6, 2022 at 9:29:41 AM UTC+10, Lynn McGuire wrote:
"How John Backus’ Fortran Beat the Machine Code ‘Priesthood’" by David >> CasselThat is false. Already at the University of Manchester, England in 1952,
https://thenewstack.io/how-john-backus-fortran-beat-machine-codes-priesthood/
"John Backus one of the founding forefathers of early computer
programming, and in many ways set the stage for modern programming
languages."
"Backus led the team that developed the Fortran programming language in
1957, still touted today as “the first high-level programming language” >> on web pages at IBM. As the Associated Press wrote — half a century
later — in an obituary for Backus, “Prior to Fortran, computers had to >> be meticulously ‘hand-coded’ — programmed in the raw strings of digits >> that triggered actions inside the machine.”"
the first autocode was in use.
An improved form, the Mark I autocode, was implemented in 1955.
In 1955, GIP was already in use on Pilot ACE. No knowledge of machine
code was required to write the instructions for GIP.
On 7/5/2022 9:21 PM, Robin Vowels wrote:
On Wednesday, July 6, 2022 at 9:29:41 AM UTC+10, Lynn McGuire wrote:I'm going to hazard a guess that obituary writers tend not to know much about computer science and computer science practitioners tend not to
"How John Backus’ Fortran Beat the Machine Code ‘Priesthood’" by DavidThat is false. Already at the University of Manchester, England in 1952, the first autocode was in use.
Cassel
https://thenewstack.io/how-john-backus-fortran-beat-machine-codes-priesthood/
"John Backus one of the founding forefathers of early computer
programming, and in many ways set the stage for modern programming
languages."
"Backus led the team that developed the Fortran programming language in >> 1957, still touted today as “the first high-level programming language”
on web pages at IBM. As the Associated Press wrote — half a century
later — in an obituary for Backus, “Prior to Fortran, computers had to
be meticulously ‘hand-coded’ — programmed in the raw strings of digits
that triggered actions inside the machine.”"
An improved form, the Mark I autocode, was implemented in 1955.
In 1955, GIP was already in use on Pilot ACE. No knowledge of machine
code was required to write the instructions for GIP.
write obituaries.
Louis
"How John Backus’ Fortran Beat the Machine Code ‘Priesthood’" by David Cassel
https://thenewstack.io/how-john-backus-fortran-beat-machine-codes-priesthood/
"John Backus one of the founding forefathers of early computer
programming, and in many ways set the stage for modern programming languages."
"Backus led the team that developed the Fortran programming language in
1957, still touted today as “the first high-level programming language” on web pages at IBM. As the Associated Press wrote — half a century
later — in an obituary for Backus, “Prior to Fortran, computers had to
be meticulously ‘hand-coded’ — programmed in the raw strings of digits that triggered actions inside the machine.”"
Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> schrieb:
"How John Backus’ Fortran Beat the Machine Code ‘Priesthood’" by David >> Cassel
https://thenewstack.io/how-john-backus-fortran-beat-machine-codes-priesthood/
"John Backus one of the founding forefathers of early computer
programming, and in many ways set the stage for modern programming
languages."
"Backus led the team that developed the Fortran programming language in
1957, still touted today as “the first high-level programming language” >> on web pages at IBM. As the Associated Press wrote — half a century
later — in an obituary for Backus, “Prior to Fortran, computers had to >> be meticulously ‘hand-coded’ — programmed in the raw strings of digits >> that triggered actions inside the machine.”"
"Abstracting Away The Machine" presents a more nuanced view.
At the time, there even was strong resistance to _not_ programming
in machine code, even assemblers were frowned upon even by John
von Neumann, because he thought it a waste of computer time and
optimization possibility.
Fortran introduced three main concepts:
- Arithmetic notation (which was revolutionary at the time), and
they had not even invented recursive descent
- A highly optimizing compiler, which often made code speed
comparable to those of an assembler
- Portability between different machines - not long after Fortran
for the 704, a version for the 650 was made, and many other
computer manufacturers followed suit.
"Abstracting Away The Machine" presents a more nuanced view.
As the Associated Press wrote — half a century
later — in an obituary for Backus, “Prior to Fortran, computers had to be meticulously ‘hand-coded’ — programmed in the raw strings of digits that triggered actions inside the machine.”"
Before FORTRAN, there were, for example, MATH-MATIC and
FLOW-MATIC. Those where the languages Grace Hopper worked on.
On Tuesday, July 5, 2022 at 5:29:41 PM UTC-6, Lynn McGuire wrote:
As the Associated Press wrote — half a centuryNot only did assemblers exist prior to FORTRAN, but so did higher-level languages.
later — in an obituary for Backus, “Prior to Fortran, computers had to be meticulously ‘hand-coded’ — programmed in the raw strings of digits
that triggered actions inside the machine.”"
Here, "Abstracting Away the Machine" gets it right:
"the first mature high-level language to achieve widespread adoption".
Before FORTRAN, there were, for example, MATH-MATIC and
FLOW-MATIC. Those where the languages Grace Hopper worked on.
COBOL was the product of a *committee*, and it incorporated a lot
from IBM's Commercial Translator as well as from FLOW-MATIC.
No doubt Grace Hopper was part of that committee, but to give her
credit for inventing COBOL the way John Backus invented FORTRAN
is, I think, in error, but a lot of accounts these days do so.
On Sunday, July 17, 2022 at 7:16:08 AM UTC-7, Quadibloc wrote:
(snip)
Before FORTRAN, there were, for example, MATH-MATIC and
FLOW-MATIC. Those where the languages Grace Hopper worked on.
As well as I know it, Fortran was the first with multiple character
variable names. Seems so obvious, but mathematicians still use single character variables.
On 7/17/2022 11:29 AM, gah4 wrote:
..
As well as I know it, Fortran was the first with multiple character variable names. Seems so obvious, but mathematicians still use single character variables.Everyone knows that T = temperature, P = pressure, and F = flow. More advanced users know that V = vapor and B = liquid.
On 7/17/2022 11:29 AM, gah4 wrote:
On Sunday, July 17, 2022 at 7:16:08 AM UTC-7, Quadibloc wrote:
(snip)
Before FORTRAN, there were, for example, MATH-MATIC and
FLOW-MATIC. Those where the languages Grace Hopper worked on.
As well as I know it, Fortran was the first with multiple character
variable names. Seems so obvious, but mathematicians still use single
character variables.
Everyone knows that T = temperature, P = pressure, and F = flow. More advanced users know that V = vapor and B = liquid.
On 7/17/2022 11:29 AM, gah4 wrote:
On Sunday, July 17, 2022 at 7:16:08 AM UTC-7, Quadibloc wrote:
Before FORTRAN, there were, for example, MATH-MATIC and
FLOW-MATIC. Those where the languages Grace Hopper worked on.
As well as I know it, Fortran was the first with multiple character variable names. Seems so obvious, but mathematicians still use single character variables.
Everyone knows that T = temperature, P = pressure, and F = flow. More advanced users know that V = vapor and B = liquid.
- A highly optimizing compiler, which often made code speed
comparable to those of an assembler
On Monday, July 18, 2022 at 7:35:11 AM UTC+10, Lynn McGuire wrote:Not to mention gamma, which is Euler's constant or the ratio of specific heats, and upper-case Gamma, which is the gamma function or surface excess.
On 7/17/2022 11:29 AM, gah4 wrote:
On Sunday, July 17, 2022 at 7:16:08 AM UTC-7, Quadibloc wrote:
Before FORTRAN, there were, for example, MATH-MATIC and
FLOW-MATIC. Those where the languages Grace Hopper worked on.
As well as I know it, Fortran was the first with multiple character variable names. Seems so obvious, but mathematicians still use single character variables.
Everyone knows that T = temperature, P = pressure, and F = flow. More advanced users know that V = vapor and B = liquid.
Really?
And PI ? Theta? Alpha? Beta?
It seems hard for us now, when computers
are faster, and speed of writing is more important than
execution speed.
On Monday, July 18, 2022 at 4:41:12 AM UTC-6, gah4 wrote:
It seems hard for us now, when computers
are faster, and speed of writing is more important than
execution speed.
Surely the fact that computers are _cheaper_ is even more
important for this than the fact that they are faster.
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