Xref: utzoo comp.lang.misc:1896 comp.lang.fortran:1173 Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!ncar!ames!eos!eugene From: eugene@eos.UUCP (Eugene Miya) Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc,comp.lang.fortran Subject: Re: why column arrays in Fortran (was opinions on computer languages) Summary: Gospel, God speaks, this space for rent Message-ID: <1544@eos.UUCP> Date: 18 Sep 88 07:51:34 GMT References: <3938@enea.se> <1399@garth.UUCP> <1790@ogccse.ogc.edu> Reply-To: eugene@eos.UUCP (Eugene Miya) Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Calif. Lines: 32 Oops! A very good posting by Doug Pase on computer languages, and (oops!) he cites the ancient Greek God Backus ;-). I off handedly brought the old subject of column major arrays up (remember lexical order versus others reasons). I got this BEFORE Doug's posting arrived. And, no, he doesn't read the Usenet. >Date: Fri, 16 Sep 88 15:06:53 PDT >From: John Backus >To: Eugene miya>Message-Id: <880916.150653....> >Subject: Re: Sorry to bother you >In-Reply-To: Your message of Fri, > <8809161958.AA08970@aurora.arc.nasa.gov> > > other work-oriented personal stuff deleted > >The choice of column orientation of matrices in Fortran was based on >the fact that in the 704 (and, I think, generally) the test for reaching >the end of a row did not depend on the row number. Since we expected that >it was far more common to scan row-wise, this choice enabled us to avoid >changing the end-of-row-test at the end of every row. Editing for some privacy. Another gross generalization from --eugene miya, NASA Ames Research Center, eugene@aurora.arc.nasa.gov resident cynic at the Rock of Ages Home for Retired Hackers: "Mailers?! HA!", "If my mail does not reach you, please accept my apology." {uunet,hplabs,ncar,decwrl,allegra,tektronix}!ames!aurora!eugene "Send mail, avoid follow-ups. If enough, I'll summarize."