On: The Collapse of the Unix Philosophy

[btschaegg]

Not that I've ever used one, but I wouldn't expect someone to indent any code on a punch card.

I just felt the comment was suiting since it must have been about when they were still used that you couldn't automate indentation.

[rbanffy → btschaegg]

In FORTRAN 77, it'a syntax error to put a statement before column 7

[btschaegg → rbanffy]

Interesting! Can you explain why that is the case? Were the first 6 characters reserved for the line number or goto marks?

[rbanffy → btschaegg]

Yes. Columns 1 to 5 are for labels. Column 6, if it has any character there (usually "$"), marks a continuation from the previous line.

I think the column 6 rule and line continuations were removed for FORTRAN 95.