Re: Programming language similarity

On Monday, April 25, 2022 at 1:54:58 PM UTC-7, Derek Jones wrote:


(snip)


> What makes somebody choose a particular set of symbols.
> My guess is that their past experience is a major factor,
> i.e., the use of symbols they had previously been exposed to.


Early Fortran was limited by the number of characters available
on the IBM 026 keypunch. They redefined some of the punch
codes with different symbols for scientific use, as that was
easier than designing a whole new machine.


Much of that was then fixed with EBCDIC in S/360, where
an 8 bit code allowed, and pretty much required, that they be
separated. In any case, the characters (with new punches)
were kept. (And new compilers have an option to accept
the old punch codes.)


I do remember punching ALGOL programs on the 026, where
you had to use the multipunch key, along with big charts on
the wall, to get the needed characters.


In any case, character set limitations stay with us long after
the reason for the limitation has gone.

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