> ForTran is the high level language version of the IBM
 > 360 Assembly language
 > (BAL for Basic Assembly Language?

    Oh well, if we're going to get technical, it's the For[mula]
Tran[slation] language. As you say IBM in origin. Akin to assembler with
line numbers and labels. It was modified into ForTran IV and then into
ForTran 77. Don't know if it has moved on since, because about that time we
all moved on to C and unix and kinda left it behind.

    It's still handy for quick calculations, of the sort where VC++ is
gross overkill, and the phone's calculator is not enough :-)

    The sad thing about it is that I can't find the textbook. It was a
laugh a minute that book. Oh - I can find the FS Manual with details of the
compiler and linker switches, and the libraries and extensions, but I must
have lent the funny one out. Oh, well ... back to Sherlock Holmes. I'm at
his final confrontation with Moriarty ... off in the train to Paris with
Watson ...

    I'm playing with the Digital Mars compiler now. That is a nice compiler
for free, isn't it?

Best Wishes,
Bill.

---