Re: language design implications for variant records in a pascal-like language

torbenm@diku.dk (Torben Ęgidius Mogensen)
Mon, 17 Jan 2011 12:35:17 +0100

          From comp.compilers
Related articles
[49 earlier articles]
Re: language design implications for variant records in a pascal-like DrDiettrich1@aol.com (Hans-Peter Diettrich) (2011-01-14)
Re: language design implications for variant records in a pascal-like cfc@shell01.TheWorld.com (Chris F Clark) (2011-01-14)
Re: language design implications for variant records in a pascal-like robin51@dodo.com.au (robin) (2011-01-15)
Re: language design implications for variant records in a pascal-like compilers@is-not-my.name (2011-01-16)
Re: language design implications for variant records in a pascal-like gah@ugcs.caltech.edu (glen herrmannsfeldt) (2011-01-16)
Re: language design implications for variant records in a pascal-like robin51@dodo.com.au (robin) (2011-01-17)
Re: language design implications for variant records in a pascal-like torbenm@diku.dk (2011-01-17)
Re: language design implications for variant records in a pascal-like dot@dotat.at (Tony Finch) (2011-01-17)
Re: language design implications for variant records in a pascal-like genew@ocis.net (Gene Wirchenko) (2011-01-17)
Re: language design implications for variant records in a pascal-like mcr@wildcard.demon.co.uk (Martin Rodgers) (2011-01-18)
Re: language design implications for variant records in a pascal-like robin51@dodo.com.au (robin) (2011-01-19)
Re: language design implications for variant records in a pascal-like 9cn6w6402@sneakemail.com (Peter Canning) (2011-01-18)
Re: language design implications for variant records in a pascal-like martin@gkc.org.uk (Martin Ward) (2011-01-24)
| List of all articles for this month |
From: torbenm@diku.dk (Torben Ęgidius Mogensen)
Newsgroups: comp.compilers
Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2011 12:35:17 +0100
Organization: SunSITE.dk - Supporting Open source
References: 11-01-036 11-01-042 11-01-052
Keywords: history, Fortran
Posted-Date: 18 Jan 2011 01:02:03 EST

"robin" <robin51@dodo.com.au> writes:
> Well, it did. However, FORTRAN programmers couldn't perceive that the
> language was of any benefit to them.


I have seen examples of FORTRAN programmers rejecting newer languages
(like Pascal, C, or C++) because of a perceived ineffectiveness of the
newer language compared to FORTRAN.


While there sometimes is a real difference in effectiveness -- such as
when Pascal is compiled to interpreted P-code -- the perception is often
based on simple-minded experiments porting a few programs from FORTRAN
to, say, C and not taking the different array layout into account: If
you translate a nested loop walking over a multi-dimensional array from
FORTRAN to C, you are likely to get a suboptimal order of access -- the
original FORTRAN program was optimised to column-major array layout,
which doesn't work well with the row-major array layout of C or Pascal.


Torben
[This is an awfully long way from compilers. -John]


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