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From: cdshaw@watmum.UUCP (Chris Shaw)
Newsgroups: net.jokes
Subject: Re: Request for computer science bloopers
Message-ID: <250@watmum.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 12-Aug-85 09:55:50 EDT
Article-I.D.: watmum.250
Posted: Mon Aug 12 09:55:50 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 17-Aug-85 06:34:00 EDT
References: <115@uw-june> <53100120@trsvax>
Reply-To: cdshaw@watmum.UUCP (Chris Shaw)
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 33

In article <53100120@trsvax> wkb@trsvax writes:
>
>   After FORTRAN (short for FORmula TRANslation) became popular, the University
>of Waterloo decided to write their own version, calling it "WATFOR" presumably
>meaning "WATerloo FORmula translation".  When they came out with a revision of
>the compiler, it was naturally called WATFIV.
>

Wellll....
and now, the real story !

WATFOR was built for the IBM 1620 series (at firt, then ported to others).
The motivation was a compiler that didn't just sit there if your program
was wrong. WATFOR was the first FORTRAN compiler to have error messages!

WATFIV, on the other hand, is a bit of weak computer wimsy that REALLY means

WATerloo Fortran IV i.e., a FORTRAN 4 compiler.

This probably started Waterloo's tradition of naming EVERYTHING with WAT as the
first three letters. 

..and if you doubt my word, I worked for the group that still sells WATFOR
and WATFIV, so there !


Chris Shaw    watmath!watmum!cdshaw  or  cdshaw@watmath
University of Waterloo

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