From: cr88192@gmail.com   
      
   On 10/21/2025 1:21 PM, rbowman wrote:   
   > On Mon, 20 Oct 2025 19:21:51 -0700, Keith Thompson wrote:   
   >   
   >> Janis Papanagnou  writes:   
   >>> On 20.10.2025 20:36, rbowman wrote:   
   >> [...]   
   >>>> I have converted F77 code from NOAA's public domain stuff to C.   
   >>>>   
   >>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F2c   
   >>>>   
   >>>> The utility does indeed convert Fortran 77 to C code that will compile   
   >>>> but it is barely human readable and nothing you would want to   
   >>>> maintain.   
   >>>   
   >>> If the transformation is done correctly there's no reason to inspect   
   >>> the details of the generated "C" code, or is it?   
   >>   
   >> Unless the goal is to continue maintenance of the code in C.   
   >>   
   >> A plausible scenario is that you have a body of code in Fortran that you   
   >> want to continue maintaining, but it's easier to find C programmers than   
   >> Fortran programmers.  (I don't know whether that's the case here.)   
   >>   
   >> [...]   
   >   
   > Definitely. I think I might have been the only person in the company that   
   > had ever used Fortran. The codebase was all C.  Even competent C   
   > programmers were hard to find. The local university used Java as their   
   > didactic language. Turning a Java programmer loose on C is very dangerous.   
   > Conversely we had one legacy standalone Java application. If I had to   
   > modify it I approached it very gingerly.   
   >   
      
   FWIW:   
   Back when I was taking college classes, they were using C# for pretty   
   much everything.   
      
   Apparently I rubbed some of the teachers the wrong way by my admitted   
   preference for C.   
      
   Well, and at one point doing one of the class assignments by just   
   proceeding to write C code in C++/CLI so it was still technically .NET ...   
      
      
   Not like C# was a bad language per-se, just I had my reluctance about a   
   language which would put obvious limits on my choice of platform.   
      
   Like, if you want to do basic GUI apps on Windows, it was a good choice.   
      
   But, this was long ago...   
      
      
      
   OTOH:   
   Ironically, I am now getting a newer laptop.   
   For a long time, I was not getting newer laptop, because too expensive.   
      
   But, then noted that, because of Win11, it means there are a bunch of   
   slightly older Win10 laptops basically going for netbook prices...   
   Just sort of thought about it, and was like, "Yeah, I think I will get one".   
      
   Well, and not too long ago, got a Dell OptiPlex for around $70.   
      Vs, say, a $240 Dell Latitude laptop...   
      
   Technically, if it can run Minecraft or similar, it will already be a   
   step up from the one I had already.   
      
   Contrast a few years ago when there were basically no cheap laptops.   
      
   Still slim-profile with an internal battery, groan, I prefer the older   
   style with removable batteries, but sadly not really a thing anymore.   
   Hopefully it is at least more stable than the phone batteries have   
   tended to be.   
      
   Well, and will (probably) be hardware from this decade (or at least late   
   2010s), would still be around a decade newer than my current laptops   
   (Vista era and WinXP era).   
      
   ...   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)