where have all the keypunch operators gone, long time passing

[redglyph]

(07-15-2022 11:21 AM)Don Shepherd Wrote:  I haven't programmed for a living in several decades now, but I wonder if current programming languages are more forgiving of errors than old languages like FORTRAN and COBOL.

They're not forgiving in the sense you still have to follow the grammar, but many grammars have become less cluttered and less rigid. A few languages have become clearer and more concise too, because the compiler does more of the heavy work. If you read a program in Kotlin, Python or in C#, it's a far cry from FORTRAN and its rigid syntax, or even from C and C++. In some you don't need semicolons anymore, or types can often be induced and omitted (thankfully, when it comes to functional programming).

So it feels more as fluttering along with the flow of ideas than punching machine codes.

Compilers have become smarter at detecting more potential problems too. The most impressive I've experienced is Rust, which usually proposes how to solve problems in the code and can induce a lot of types you don't need to declare anymore (and more, but it gets complicated to explain). It's good because the language has a much steeper learning curve.