in blas, there is S C D Z S = single D = double C = complex Z = ???

i'm guessing integer

In a mathematical context I would say that Z stands for Integer (german ganze *Z*ahlen) but in the context of BLAS its probably double complex https://books.google.de/books?id=5tv3HdF-0N8C&pg=PA578&lpg=PA578&dq=Basic+Linear+Algebra+Subprograms+%22sdcz%22&source=bl&ots=IHo_X_j4M9&sig=LaKhWe9_Vqw4mLpWQYbjiFy1ib0&hl=de&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiyrsyElJjYAhWPKFAKHTT8AWoQ6AEIPjAD#v=onepage&q=Basic%20Linear%20Algebra%20Subprograms%20%22sdcz%22&f=false

Git-question: I’ve search high and low for a way to get the branch point from master of a branch, even after the branch has been merged to master. It has to be doable, since Github shows a diff based on this SHA, and my visual Git-tool can show where a branch started. git merge-base my-branch master only works if my-branch is not merged back into master

@burke: http://www.netlib.org/lapack/lapack-3.2.1/SRC/VARIANTS/README seems to also imply Z = double complex

is there a subset of C that is easy to target? (I'm writing a Clojure DSL -> C compiler)

@ghsgd2: is this going to be your permanent nick? 🙂

@qqq There's always something new to learn so I doubt that I'll become a Clojure expert in the foreseeable future. Also found it hard to convince managers to start using it so even less time and reasons to change this nick. 🙂

You don't have to be an expert to get stuff done in Clojure 😄

@victor.cleja I need to be an expert to get paid well. 🙂

hmm, "paid well" == how many thousands of $$$ / month? 😄

COBOL pays well.

one of my colleague’s mother is a COBOL programmer

@victor.cleja The number wouldn't impress you. 🙂 The thing is I would get even less for writing code in languages for which I haven't passed exam yet.

apparently lots of banks call her in when shit hits the fan

yeah, lots of stuff running COBOL out there that would be too expensive to replace

which is insane to think about

If it works, why fix it?

And I think there are only two companies in the world that do core banking software. So, yeah...

All about the monopoly.

Also, #IBM

i don’t have a good argument for “fixing” it other than making it easier for other people to work on

which i’m sure would probably do more harm than good

If you know COBOL, it isn’t hard to work on

personally, i would screw up some banking logic, without a doubt lol

I respect that they don’t chase the latest fad

banking on Node.js

with Redux!

lol

They should use GnuCOBOL

the most l33t programmers only use FORTRAN https://fortran.io/

laugh but fortran is still in use in some serious fields

oh, i’m sure. i think this project is actually legit too.

lots of physicists in particular

Fortran is used for lots of scientific computing. It is pretty good at that.

yup

I know 0% about COBOL - but can it handle decimal arithmetic and calendar dates? If so, I can see why the banks don’t change to Java at least.

cobol is… well. yeah

I’ve seen cobol, I’ve worked with cobol (didn’t write it myself thank god)

I really see no reasons to use cobol these days. Some big systems which are hard to replace have been written with it but most of those systems are just huge piles of spaghetti code which makes them hard to replace

I’ve seen how old cobol programmers work and it’s not a pretty sight

fortran on the other hand has a very good reason to be still used: it’s compiler simply produces the most effective binaries out of all compilers out there hands down

so, if you really want to get performance into good shape you write your code in fortran

problem with fortran is quite often it's used by people not really used to general hygiene in programming environments too, at least in my experience

same as with cobol

ex no source control, no comments, few docs, tons of horrible dsls

yup

I was forced to integrate into this cobol system where their test environment was actually also the development environment

they connected to the mainframe, wrote their code there and executed

classic

we found out when our system tests started to freeze suddenly: they had a breakpoint in place

i did some cobol in school in the mid-2000s. The fact that it took 3 pages to write “hello world” wasn’t exactly endearing to me.

but still, some companies sell fortran based simulation codes that's often decades old for super high license prices

and do very well doing that

@bengineer yep! https://developer.ibm.com/node/sdk/

And this is just hilarious https://github.com/IonicaBizau/node-cobol

lol thats amazing. i’ve found my calling

Modern Popular languages on old hardware. Yeah, quite a combo

Bottom line is: time to switch http://www.masterbaboon.com/2012/03/cobol-for-lisp-developers/

if we can just shove it in a Docker container we’ll be golden

MAKE COBOL GREAT AGAIN! http://www.coboloncogs.org/INDEX.HTM

I’ll just leave this here: https://github.com/azac/cobol-on-wheelchair

> |MAKING LEGACY INTEGRATION|AS| | |||# EASY, FUN AND LUCRATIVE AS#FIXING YEAR|2000CBUGS.| [

Sounds like FUN