[Beowulf] Re: programming questions here?

[Larry Stewart]

> > At 08:53 AM 5/6/2007, Robert G. Brown wrote:
>
> > Actually, if you really want to see a lot of traffic, you need to 
> > post a question like:
> > 
> > "I know that SNOBOL is the best language for parallel programming, 
> > but because distro X has a lame implementation, am I really stuck 
> > using the brain-dead constructs of Ada, or would I be better using 
> > distro Y and APL, and rewriting the compiler for my needs."
>  
>
So in 1984 I was teaching a programming languages class, with
assignments in Pascal, LISP, APL, and SNOBOL.  The SNOBOL
image (running on TOPS-20) had been assembled in 1971 (!).

The SNOBOL assignment was to fit solution words
into a crossword puzzle using pattern matching.

One student had a solution that was actually fast as well a right.
If you held up the listing at arms length, you would swear
it was a FORTRAN program.

 From which I conclude that you can write fast programs in
any language, but they come out looking like FORTRAN.

-Larry