[TUHS] RIP John Backus

[Paul Winalski]

On 3/19/18, Clem Cole <clemc at ccc.com> wrote:
> arrgh -- dyslexia -- VT-100's are NOT  full ansi [they use the ANSI
> sequences, but do not implement all of the features/behaviors in the
> spec].  VMS Fortran started the same way, although it did conform in time
> because it had to pass the Fortran validation tests.
>
VAX/VMS Fortran was under development at the same time as the
Fortran-77 standard.  For the VMS Fortran development team, the new
F77 features weren't a particularly high priority at the time because
there wasn't any existing code that used them, whereas there was a ton
of dusty-deck IBM FORTRAN II and FORTRAN IV code out there, especially
in the educational market DEC was keenest to sell the VAX into.  F77
features were implemented over time in VAX/VMS Fortran, and after a
couple of releases it was fully Fortran-77 compliant.  But at first
release in 1978 it was an extended subset of F77.

Was f77 the first Fortran for UNIX, or were there other compilers for
Fortran before f77 came along?

-Paul W.