AF6AY wrote:

Everyone has their 'favorite' high-level language, each one saying
that Their language is the best, most beautiful, and other fancy
sayings, complete with all sorts of academic praises and plaudits.

My new HP-35S isn't as pretty as the HP-32S II which is also on
my computer table and the programming commands aren't quite
compatible. Esthetics aside, I wouldn't trade either one of them
for SMALL programming tasks. What I want are the numbers
from the results so that hardware can be completed. Both do that
very nicely for what I want.

Perhaps if you actually had used it, you might think more of APL.

Perhaps if you had actually used LTSpice, a FREE download from
Linear Technology and actually built some circuits using the LTSPice
results you might think more of it. shrug

I have, and I think it is a very nice tool. Perhaps the best of the
available spices. But because it is not a free tool (eg. open source)
I have to live with everything just the way that Mike Englehart
wants it to be. That isn't a bad thing, but it is very limiting because
one day Mike won't be there to support LTSpice anymore, and LT will
decide that they haven't the funds to hire some new support, and it
freeze. To cease being supported is to die in software land.

MARTHA's source is open, and because anyone with the desire to
support it can, it will live forever.

Your message appeared in rec.radio.amateur.homebrew and also
sci.electronics.cad. I am replying from homebrew. I'm not a
programmer despite once having several years complementary
membership in the ACM...or teaching myself FORTRAN IV from
Dan McCracken's softcover book on the subject. I have MS
FORTRAN 5.1 package, bought and paid for myself and have used
it for a variety of different tasks...until MS dropped support of
their
product and also of similar products in later versions of Windows.
shrug again

So, instead of shrugging about how MS wronged you by dropping support
for an old fortran package, wander over to linux, or BSD, and run
the open source f77 program, along with all the other open source
goodies that have been made available for everyone to use free of
charge.... including some damn nice implementations of programs for
hamradio use.

If you want to get all arrogant about computer languages, please

Begging your pardon, but you were the one that felt the need to
slam the MARTHA cad program and apl. The announcement you saw was
a simple announcement of a gift to everyone of this package. That
bothered you for some reason, so you felt the need to tell everyone
to ignore it because apl was old, and anything old couldn't be any
good.

73,

Chuck