

How Fortran Was Developed - rams
http://cycle-gap.blogspot.com/2008/11/how-fortran-was-developed.html

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gruseom
The paper by Backus to which this post links is one I had not seen before. I
read through the whole thing, and it struck me instantly as a classic which
every hacker here should read. It is surely one of the best things Backus ever
wrote.

Interspersed among long-obsolete technical details are gems of insight about
software and programming languages that are worth their weight in gold. The
final paragraphs articulate Backus' critique of "Von Neumann languages" in a
way that even his (much better known) masterpiece on FP doesn't achieve.

I had no idea that, prior to Fortran I, the very possibility of a workable
compiler had already been widely rejected as impossible because of grandiose
claims made by vendors. In other words, vaporware is older than high-level
languages.

And behind the dry academic tone one gets a feel for the the brilliant design
work, all-night debugging sessions and camaraderie of one of the greatest
teams of all time - as well as, to judge by his consistently humble self-
effacement, one of the greatest team leaders.

So to the chorus of chicken littles incessantly bemoaning the decline of
Hacker News, now's your chance to redeem yourself: shut up and read this
paper!

~~~
joestrickler
Would have passed over it if not for your comment.

Read, worthwhile, archived. Thanks.

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gjm11
One of the problems FORTRAN was trying to solve (from Backus's paper): "The
cost of programmers associated with a computer center was usually at least as
great as the cost of the computer itself." Interesting how things change; the
ratio would be more like 100:1 now.

