Re: [tlug] Fortran --> Python (was linux engineer)

[Jim Breen <jimbreen@example.com>]

On 7 June 2012 19:38, Josh Glover <jmglov@example.com> wrote:
> 2012/6/7 Nava Whiteford <new@example.com>:
>> There was an interesting article doing the rounds a few weeks ago about
>> how a language can be faster than C, that had one or two interesting comments about Fortran:
>
> I guess it really comes down to how good the compiler is at targeting
> your architecture, right?

Fortran was designed for and around the instruction set of the
IBM 704, which was a 36-bit word, two-address  system.
Instructions such as the DO loop and the "arithmetic if"
mapped directly onto instruction set. It was pretty fast for its day.

I learned Fortran on the later transistorized IBM 7044. We originally
used IBM's "IBFTN" compiler which was slow, but which produced
beautifully fast code (after all it had been hand-crafted by several
pioneers in the field.)  We later switched to the University of
Waterloo's "Watfor" compiler which was an interpreter. Programs
ran slowly but compiled like lightning, which was much better for
a student "load-and-go" environment.

Ah, the memories....

Jim

-- 
Jim Breen
Adjunct Snr Research Fellow, Clayton School of IT, Monash University
Webmaster: Hawthorn Rowing Club, Treasurer: Japanese Studies Centre
Graduate student: Language Technology Group, University of Melbourne