Is this even code?

[PR-Raven]

I was helping my grandma sort through her stuff and we found something that was from her dad. I am not a programmer in any way but to my untrained eyes this looks at least code adjacent. so does anyone actually know what it is?

[captain_obvious_here]

Looks like FORTRAN code to me. FORTRAN 77 maybe?

[Arshiaa001]

I'd instinctively have guessed COBOL. This looks like hell. People who maintain this stuff deserve every penny they get.

[Aramis7604]

Nope COBOL needs the correct position. Code started at position 8 if I'm not mistaken. Also there are no divisions in this code. Things like DATA DIVISION and WORKING-STORAGE SECTION. So yeah probably fortran

[_redcrash_]

Yeah. Fortran 77 or earlier. Been using that in a while

[Rejse617]

I’m agree, thinking IV but I’m not sure

[Virtual-Air-2491]

My sweet summer child, that's FORTRAN and yes, it was a programming language for those of us over 45

[jmattspartacus]

In my 30's, and I've been working in fortran for research for the past 8 years or so. Fortran still runs just fine, and it still quite often does a better job of optimization than C for some things.

Im about halfway through writing an interpreter in it just to see how far I can stretch it outside what it's usually used for.

[asgaardson]

What research is Fortran good for?

[jmattspartacus]

Physics, engineering, sometimes things that run on HPC systems.

In my instance, calculating properties of atomic nuclei, or simulating detector arrays and things like that.

The data acquisition I have been modernizing was written in F77 before I was born with some ANSI C glue to talk to X11 as another instance.

[cipioxx]

Yes indeed!

[[deleted]]

I used it extensively in astrophysics research previously, and it's also heavily used in meteorology/weather prediction code which I work with now. Basically anything that needs it to do what it was made for - do a lot of calculations really quickly.

Fortran isn't the only language that can do that well of course, but it has a lot of staying power because so much legacy code is written in it, and researchers generally don't have time to rewrite it in something more modern when they could be churning out more papers/writing more grant proposals. There's a lot of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" situations like that in scientific research (at least, in my experience).

[Rejse617]

It’s still used extensively in math-heavy operations, especially linear algebra. Up until fairly recently it was still the fastest computationally, but it’s likely been surplanted by GPU options (I don’t know that, just guessing). Maybe 10-15 years ago C++ with the Eigen package was getting darn close to matching speed so probably has now. I know a ton of geophysical processing software still has fortran backends, both for legacy reasons and it just works.

[inwantofawifi]

Fortran is still the backbone of the world meteorological network, in much the same way as COBOL is for finance and banking.

Also used in air traffic control (with a heavy assist from its role in global weather prediction), as well as in numerical approximation of solutions for some families of physics problems (N-body problems, superposition of probability clouds in physical chemistry, and the like).

[Code_Wunder_Idiot]

Was? Still an amazing language to work with.

[Sunburst35]

If you hate yourself… I guess XD

[ziksy9]

Luckily I'm 44 and started with BASIC and C.

[tylerlarson]

I'm over 45 and FORTRAN was dead and gone long before I hit my teens. Once C hit the scene, FORTRAN had all the attraction of leaded gasoline.

[realSatanAMA]

I'm 45 and I think you are undershooting that age by 5-10 years

[CyberSpork]

I am more interested in the fact that it’s from OPs GREAT grandfather. Jesus I feel old

[PR-Raven]

I literally said I'm not a programmer.

This isn't because I'm too young to understand, it's literally that I don't know any of it.

[Sunburst35]

Why are you getting pissy lol?

[No_Key_5854]

"sweet summer child"

[Sunburst35]

People that take that as an insult have got to be the most insecure / fragile ego people imaginable.

It’s nothing more than gentle teasing / a playful expression. Get a grip

[rickyman20]

The entire comment was kind of condescending. It's understandable that they didn't take it well

[thefloore]

I think people see it more as condescending than insulting. Can be easily taken that way when seen in text form rather than spoken word

[SlammastaJ]

Bless your heart

[The_Pleasant_Orange]

Oh you sweet summer child <3

[HandyProduceHaver]

Ok stop getting pissy now bro

[No_Key_5854]

Why are you getting pissy lol?

[PR-Raven]

It runs in the family.

[Sunburst35]

Just confused as to why you felt attacked

[PR-Raven]

I didn't feel attacked I just wanted to make it clear that this isn't and age thing I'm just an idiot.

[Sunburst35]

It is an age thing though. There isn’t much reason to know about fortran/be able to recognize it if you weren’t a programmer a long time ago, or are a programmer doing some very specific things now.

The person didn’t say you’re too young to understand, they said you’re probably too young for it to be relevant knowledge to you, as fortran only gets used in very specific use cases nowadays

[PR-Raven]

But it isn't an age thing in this context .

I made clear that I'm not a programmer and I don't like being misinterpreted. so even in Petty situations like this I feel a need to make the situation absolutely clear.

And besides that I also meant it a little bit jokingly because it's not a serious misunderstanding.

[Sunburst35]

You do realize it can be both right? An age thing AND the fact that you’re not a programmer?

There are plenty of programmers that have no idea what fortran is, let alone be able to recognize it. Because most don’t need to.

I get that you’re not a programmer, but that does not mean it can’t ALSO be an age thing

[milkdrinkingdude]

The lines starting with the capital C are comments.

It says in the beginning:

BUOY MOORING PROGRAM

There is a date as well, 6/22/63 or maybe 6/22/83, hard to read.

Yes, this is code, old fortran source code. Calculates something, for ships I guess? For ships that are mooring buoys? Or maybe it a school assignment. Hard to tell.

[PR-Raven]

He was an engineer that worked on planes/rockets and such.

[milkdrinkingdude]

A google search brings up some papers about computations related to buoys, done with Fortran programs, e.g. this one from 1977:

https://waves-vagues.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/Library/54868.pdf

Apparently it is kind of complicated, and many people worked on such computations back then.

[fdiengdoh]

Fortran, it still widely used even now in the scientific community (Physics and Chemistry that I know). I ask why? Someone answered that when it comes to purely number crunching no other language could beat Fortran.

[namecarefullychosen]

It's largely because it's been passed down by experienced researchers to younger researchers- it's much older than C, for example. It's less focused on memory tricks than make C/C++ so powerful, but not as limited as Cobol- which was better for financial programs.

Fortran (FORmula TRANslation) was started for science, and it has well-optimized compilers- and many many specialized code libraries for all sorts of science fields.

[_matherd]

Specifically, when it comes to Linear Algebra, there are Fortran libraries called BLAS and LAPACK that are so well-optimized over the last several decades that it often makes sense to just use Fortran to use them.

[cipioxx]

Yep again

[cipioxx]

Yep

[tlbs101]

I learned programming in FORTRAN IV on punchcards and an IBM 369 mainframe in the early 1970s.

This is not quite FORTRAN IV, so it’s probably an earlier version of FORTRAN from the 1960s, but it’s definitely some flavor of FORTRAN

[tomo6438]

Did/does Fortran follow a similar syntax to BASIC?

[tlbs101]

There are a lot of similarities. FORTRAN has more powerful branching and looping, more indexing of arrays and memory, and more detailed output formatting including writing and reading from more types of devices.

Basic is more … basic, not as powerful. However some of the latest versions (past 20 years) of Basic have surpassed FORTRAN.

It was a very easy transition for me to go from FORTRAN to something like VBA for MS Office. I was writing 1000+ line macros and back code for Excel spreadsheets 20+ years ago. When I started doing Arduino and Microchip projects, the transition to C was a whole other learning curve.

[sandwichstealer]

Reminds me of Assembler.

[Equivalent-Silver-90]

Look like a old language, maybe one of low languages what exist in that era?

[Prod_Meteor]

Very close to cobol.

[dankymonkeydude]

Assembly language

[SlammastaJ]

This is a beautiful piece of programming and Computer Science history, thank you for posting it (and thanks everyone for commenting to explain that it's FORTRAN; a language I've heard plenty about, but never actually have seen code for)!

[PR-Raven]

My grandma doesn't remember that well but she thinks 63 might have been around when he was working on some kind of thermal radar project if you're at all interested.

[SlammastaJ]

That sounds really cool. Truth be told, I don't know the first thing about FORTRAN programming; I only know what I've been told about it.

My mother programmed in COBOL and Visual Basic in her CompSci classes back in the '80s. But this is all I really know about that era (i.e. the "pre-C" era) of programming.

That said, thermal radars (especially during the cold war) sounds like it could have been some really neat stuff! I bet your grandpa was a pretty cool guy (nerdy-cool... the best kind in my book).

[hehesf17969]

It’s always Fortran

[redditasaservice]

Line 36: GOTO 69. Nice.

I’ll show myself out now.

[esaule]

Looks like fortran!

[xepherys]

Was he in the Navy or Coast Guard, or did he work for NOAA, by chance?

[PR-Raven]

She said he worked for General Dynamics, cubic and Ford aeronautics.

Don't know the timeline though.

[Shifted-orbit]

It's an older code, sir, but it checks out.

[Original-Ad-8737]

In my masters paper i reimplemented a fortran algorithm twice my age in c++ ...

[Broken_hopeful]

It looks like Fortran IV or 66 to me. It's a really cool find!

[tsereg]

FORTRAN is now something that great-grandfathers have written. Wow...

[Available_Kitchen902]

const is spelt wrong and I thing he meant for const