On Wednesday, 12 August 2009 at 23:29:31 UTC+10, nm...@cam.ac.uk wrote:
> In article <NCygm.11240$ze1....@news-server.bigpond.net.au>,
> robin <rob...@bigpond.com> wrote:
> >> >
> >> >These sorts of programs were originally written in languages
> >> >other than FORTRAN.
> >>
> >> Eh? Some were, some weren't. Fortran was THE implementation language
> >> of choice for portable scientific applications (including statistical
> >> and engineering ones) between 1960 and 1980. It was pretty heavily
> >> used for non-portable ones, too.
> >
> >That wasn't what the OP asked.
> No, it wasn't. I was responding to your categorical statement, which
> you may have made rather more absolute than you intended.
> >In any case, ALGOL was the language of choice for UK and Europe.
> Sigh. Do look at my Email address. No, it wasn't. Many people
> used ALGOL 60, many used Fortran, and many used other languages.
> In the 1960s (but no later), many people used Autocode, but
> abandoned it because it wasn't portable. Most of Rothamstead's
> and RAL's codes were in Fortran between those dates, to name
> only two important sites.
> >PL/I also was the language of choice.
> Not for portable applications. In the statistical field, there were
> many dozens of Fortran ones, and the very few PL/I ones (SAS etc.)
> were nor very portable or even specific to a single system. That
> also seemed to be true in engineering (ICES etc.) and in the other
> 'scientific' areas I had some contact with.
> >> and the applications would be regarded as minor utilities
> >> nowadays.
> >
> >Nonsense. They were used for structural design, aircraft design,
> >nuclear design, and the like.
> Those computers had 1-4 KB of memory. Yes, they were used for those
> purposes (I did so on a Mercury Meteor), but the applications were
> what would be regarded as minor utilities nowadays.
> >> >Some even predate any implementation of FORTRAN.
> >>
> >> The number of such things written before 1956 (which is when I believe
> >> the first implementation of Fortran was released) was pretty damn
> >> small,
> >
> >Programs for solving engineering and numerical problems
> >were written and solved on Pilot ACE prior to 1955,
> >which date precedes any implementation of FORTRAN.
> >These programs were used extensively on DEUCE
> >and ACE.
> >Much of the numerical work was pioneered by J. H. Wilkinson.
> >For DEUCE, the published programs numbered in excess
> >of 1,000 in all fields.
> Considering that the first DEUCE computer was delivered in May 1955,
> I doubt that many of those predated Fortran.
..
Five years of programming ion Pilit ACE did not amount to
anything?
Many of the programs already in use on Pilot ACE
were re-written for DEUCE. The instructions sets
were similar.