Program Translation - Nov. 14, 2013

[Joel Goldstick]

On Sun, Nov 17, 2013 at 12:05 PM, Richard Maine <nospam at see.signature> wrote:
> Roy Smith <roy at panix.com> wrote:
>
>> In article <bes9a5Ffm6dU1 at mid.individual.net>,
>>  Tim Prince <tprince at computer.org> wrote:
>>
>> > Perhaps you would start with an automatic indentation tool before
>> > translating.  You may have a rule against using current syntax and
>> > indentation for Fortran, but others don't.
>>
>> Does anybody still use ratfor?
>
> No. Well, I suppose it is possible you might find a soul or two
> somewhere, but you'd have to look prety hard. Ratfor became essentially
> obsolete with Fortran 77.
>
> --
> Richard Maine
> email: last name at domain . net
> domain: summer-triangle
> --
> https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list

This thread is bizarre.  Its been over 20 years since I have heard the
term 'freeware'.  The OP first seems to suggest that he wants to
translate this code to python or some other language.  He then points
out that the guy they have doing the re-write will only write it in
True BASIC.  I'm not seeing how this has anything to do with python,
except that there was mention that it wouldn't be fast enough.  Is
True BASIC fast?

That being said, I'm guessing that this thing is used in some academic
setting.  If that's true, why not get a student (who will be much more
versed in modern programming languages and techniques) to document and
rewrite the code.  When you start off with the requirement that the
new code will be True BASIC you may find that it serves your purposes,
but over time no one will know what to make of the code since no one
learns BASIC (or FORTRAN) anymore I don't think

-- 
Joel Goldstick
http://joelgoldstick.com