Geez, I always remember it as being

	ForTran

short for "Formula Translation".  Some of us are just old (and perhaps
remembering things as they never were...)

Bob Jarvis
Compuware @ Timken

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bijan Parsia [mailto:bparsia at email.unc.edu]
> Sent: Sunday, August 12, 2001 10:46 PM
> To: squeak-dev at lists.squeakfoundation.org
> Subject: Re: Help! Unemployed
> 
> 
> 
> 
> --On Sunday, August 12, 2001 10:02 PM -0400 "Andrew C. Greenberg" 
> <werdna at mucow.com> wrote:
> 
> >
> > On Sunday, August 12, 2001, at 09:21 PM, Richard A. O'Keefe wrote:
> >
> >> It's a bit like Fortran.  Anyone who spells it "FORTRAN" these days
> >> almost certainly hasn't bothered keeping up with the 
> modern standards.
> >
> > I'll own up to ignorance on this.  When did FORTRAN become Fortran?
> 
> See: http://www.fortran.com/fortran/FAQ/gene.html#1.1.0
> 
> "FORTRAN is generally the preferred spelling for discussions
>        of versions of the language prior to the current one ("90").
>        Fortran is the spelling chosen by X3J3 and WG5.
>        In this document a feeble effort has been made to capitalize
>        accordingly (e.g. vast existing software ... FORTRAN vs.
>        generic Fortran to mean all versions of the standard,
>        and specifically the modern dialect, ISO 1539:1991)."
> 
> >  Is
> > that a well-settled convention now?
> 
> I think so. LISP is now Lisp. Hmm. Was Forth ever FORTH?
> 
> >Has BASIC become Basic as well?
> 
> I'd say so. There's an interesting bit further down the page 
> in the FAQ:
> 
> 
> "       ---------------------------------------
>        ~From: walt at fortran.com (Walt Brainerd)
>        ---------------------------------------
> 
>        There was an effort to "standardize" on spelling of programming
>        languages just after F77 became a standard.  The rule: 
> if you say
>        the letters, it is all caps (APL); if you pronounce it 
> as a word,
>        it is not (Cobol, Fortran, Ada).  See, for example the 
> definitive
>        article describing Fortran 77 in the Oct 1978 issue of 
> the Comm.
>        of the ACM.  The timing was such that FORTRAN got put on the
>        standard itself, though many always after that have referred to
>        it as Fortran 77.  Of course, there are those who think it is
>        not truly Fortran if not written with all caps."
> 
> Cheers,
> Bijan "Admiring Google" Parsia.
> 
> 
>