[PLUG] Date Reformatting in Database Table

[Rich Shepard]

On Sat, 10 Oct 2009, Roderick A. Anderson wrote:

> Many years ago I was asked to add some minor functionality to a Fortran
> program written by a Civil Engineer.
>   There was no documentation and the variables were exactly like this.
> F1-F18.  That made it interesting as they were used to to do some
> complex calculations and I, not being a civil engineer, didn't know what
> was being used for where.

   Even if you were the CE who wrote the code, in 6 months you wouldn't
understand it, either. There's still a lot of FORTRAN code written by
scientists (and engineers) in the 1970s with no documentation. Punching
comments cards on the 029 keypunch took time and money (for the cards, for
the reading/processing/output of the cards) so most of us didn't do it. We
did draw diagonal lines with felt-tip pens on the top of the decks so when
we, or the operators behind the wall, dropped the deck we could put it back
in order within our lifetime. With a limit of 80 chars per Hollerith card
(and statement length) strange variable names were the norm. I've got lots
of horror stories of FORTRAN code I wrote, and libraries I used, in the '70s
writing ecosystem, population, and mathematical models for the S/360
mainframes.

Rich

-- 
Richard B. Shepard, Ph.D.               |  Integrity            Credibility
Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc.        |            Innovation
<http://www.appl-ecosys.com>     Voice: 503-667-4517      Fax: 503-667-8863