The other day, I ran across an interesting interview with Donald Knuth. Knuth, of course, is world-famous as the creator of the Potrzebie System of Weights and Measures (1 potrzebie = The thickness of issue #26 of MAD Magazine – just ask Google!)
MoreDoctor, it hurts when I do this!
It is often said that you can write bad code in any language, and I certainly can’t argue with that. I do find, though, that the worst-looking code comes from programmers who are more familiar with another programming language. One can often tell that a C programmer wrote Fortran code, or that a Fortran programmer wrote C code (my C code probably looks like the latter.)
MoreYou Are In a Maze of Twisty Little Passages, All Alike
(Deleted from Intel site, recovered thanks to archive.org!)
MAGIC WORD XYZZY
For computer geeks of a certain age, such as yours truly, it was an opportunity to relive the glorious past when Dennis Jerz announced that an early 1977 version of Will Crowther’s Adventure game source code had been discovered. Adventure was one of the first puzzle-exploration games and it not only captured the imagination of computer users worldwide when it became more widespread in 1978, but it inspired many future games such as the popular Zork and even many of today’s graphics-heavy computer games. Not bad for a text-only game written in Fortran. Right, Fortran.
MoreDomestic or Imported?
One day while I was wandering the aisles of my local grocery store, a woman beckoned me over to a table and asked if I would like to “try some imported chocolate?” Neatly arrayed on the table were packages of Lindt, Toblerone, and… Ghiradelli? I asked the woman if California had seceded from the Union, as Ghiradelli, despite its Italian name, hails from San Francisco. I suppose that from the vantage point of New Hampshire, California might as well be another country, much as depicted in that famous Saul Steinberg 1976 cover for The New Yorker, “View of the World from 9th Avenue“.
MoreThe long and winding road
The other day, I posted something in comp.lang.fortran in response to a post asking for a new feature in the Intel Fortran compiler. I suggested that the best thing to do was to submit an issue to Intel Premier Support asking for the feature since the more customers who ask for a feature, the easier job the Fortran project manager has in justifying it. This prompted a startled reply from someone who thought that I was the Intel Fortran project manager. “Heck no,” I replied, “I’m not even the most senior engineer on the project!” Well, really, I’m not on the compiler project itself anymore, but I still sit and work with those who are. Yes, I started my Fortran career at DEC in 1978, but there are others on the team who have been at it longer.
MoreNifty Fifty!
2007 will mark the 50th anniversary of the Fortran language, which was first introduced in 1957. The British Computer Society is sponsoring a retrospective on Fortran in January – perhaps there will be a US event as well.
MoreDoctor Fortran in “Don’t Blow Your Stack!”
“Doctor, my stack is overflowing! What does it mean?! Is there a cure?!” The Doctor frequently sees questions like these, and he realizes it’s time for a general article on the subject of stack allocation, as well as the other memory allocation types, static and dynamic.
MoreDoctor Fortran – Something Old, Something New: Taking a new look at FORMAT
Most Fortran programmers of a “certain age” don’t give a lot of thought to the FORMAT statement – it’s been in the language “forever”, and many of us use only the capabilities that were provided by FORTRAN 77, or perhaps even FORTRAN IV. But as the Fortran standard has evolved, formats have too, and the Good Doctor decided it’s time to review what’s new in FORMAT since FORTRAN 77.
MoreDoctor Fortran Gets Explicit!
In our last issue, the Good Doctor covered the topic of optional arguments, noting that an explicit interface was required. Since explicit interfaces seem to be a common point of confusion for those new to Fortran 90, (and some not so new), we’ll cover this subject in more detail.
MoreDoctor Fortran and the Virtues of Omission
As I was walking up the stair I met a man who wasn't there. He wasn't there again today. I wish, I wish he'd stay away. Hughes Mearns (1875-1965)More