#fortran language

[frank-olivier]

The Evolution of Programming Paradigms: Recursion’s Impact on Language Design

“Recursion, n. See Recursion.” -- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary (1906-1911)

The roots of programming languages can be traced back to Alan Turing's groundbreaking work in the 1930s. Turing's vision of a universal computing machine, known as the Turing machine, laid the theoretical foundation for modern computing. His concept of a stack, although not explicitly named, was an integral part of his model for computation.

Turing's machine utilized an infinite tape divided into squares, with a read-write head that could move along the tape. This tape-based system exhibited stack-like behavior, where the squares represented elements of a stack, and the read-write head performed operations like pushing and popping data. Turing's work provided a theoretical framework that would later influence the design of programming languages and computer architectures.

In the 1950s, the development of high-level programming languages began to revolutionize the field of computer science. The introduction of FORTRAN (Formula Translation) in 1957 by John Backus and his team at IBM marked a significant milestone. FORTRAN was designed to simplify the programming process, allowing scientists and engineers to express mathematical formulas and algorithms more naturally.

Around the same time, Grace Hopper, a pioneering computer scientist, led the development of COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language). COBOL aimed to address the needs of business applications, focusing on readability and English-like syntax. These early high-level languages introduced the concept of structured programming, where code was organized into blocks and subroutines, laying the groundwork for stack-based function calls.

As high-level languages gained popularity, the underlying computer architectures also evolved. James Hamblin's work on stack machines in the 1950s played a crucial role in the practical implementation of stacks in computer systems. Hamblin's stack machine, also known as a zero-address machine, utilized a central stack memory for storing intermediate results during computation.

Assembly language, a low-level programming language, was closely tied to the architecture of the underlying computer. It provided direct control over the machine's hardware, including the stack. Assembly language programs used stack-based instructions to manipulate data and manage subroutine calls, making it an essential tool for early computer programmers.

The development of ALGOL (Algorithmic Language) in the late 1950s and early 1960s was a significant step forward in programming language design. ALGOL was a collaborative effort by an international team, including Friedrich L. Bauer and Klaus Samelson, to create a language suitable for expressing algorithms and mathematical concepts.

Bauer and Samelson's work on ALGOL introduced the concept of recursive subroutines and the activation record stack. Recursive subroutines allowed functions to call themselves with different parameters, enabling the creation of elegant and powerful algorithms. The activation record stack, also known as the call stack, managed the execution of these recursive functions by storing information about each function call, such as local variables and return addresses.

ALGOL's structured approach to programming, combined with the activation record stack, set a new standard for language design. It influenced the development of subsequent languages like Pascal, C, and Java, which adopted stack-based function calls and structured programming paradigms.

The 1970s and 1980s witnessed the emergence of structured and object-oriented programming languages, further solidifying the role of stacks in computer science. Pascal, developed by Niklaus Wirth, built upon ALGOL's structured programming concepts and introduced more robust stack-based function calls.

The 1980s saw the rise of object-oriented programming with languages like C++ and Smalltalk. These languages introduced the concept of objects and classes, encapsulating data and behavior. The stack played a crucial role in managing object instances and method calls, ensuring proper memory allocation and deallocation.

Today, stacks continue to be an integral part of modern programming languages and paradigms. Languages like Java, Python, and C# utilize stacks implicitly for function calls and local variable management. The stack-based approach allows for efficient memory management and modular code organization.

Functional programming languages, such as Lisp and Haskell, also leverage stacks for managing function calls and recursion. These languages emphasize immutability and higher-order functions, making stacks an essential tool for implementing functional programming concepts.

Moreover, stacks are fundamental in the implementation of virtual machines and interpreters. Technologies like the Java Virtual Machine and the Python interpreter use stacks to manage the execution of bytecode or intermediate code, providing platform independence and efficient code execution.

The evolution of programming languages is deeply intertwined with the development and refinement of the stack. From Turing's theoretical foundations to the practical implementations of stack machines and the activation record stack, the stack has been a driving force in shaping the way we program computers.

How the stack got stacked (Kay Lack, September 2024)

Thursday, October 10, 2024

[pauljonessoftware]

Legacy Code, Modern Paychecks: The Surprising Demand for Antique Programming Languages

Why old-school tech skills like COBOL and Fortran are still landing high-paying gigs in 2025 In a tech world obsessed with the latest frameworks and cutting-edge AI, it might surprise you to learn there’s still an active – and even lucrative – market for what many would call antique programming languages. We’re talking COBOL, Fortran, Ada, LISP, and other veterans of computing history. But is…

[thesecondface]

there is fortran in my future and I'm not sure how I'm supposed to feel about this.

[willowwindss]

100 Inventions by Women

LIFE-SAVING/MEDICAL/GLOBAL IMPACT:

Artificial Heart Valve – Nina Starr Braunwald

Stem Cell Isolation from Bone Marrow – Ann Tsukamoto

Chemotherapy Drug Research – Gertrude Elion

Antifungal Antibiotic (Nystatin) – Rachel Fuller Brown & Elizabeth Lee Hazen

Apgar Score (Newborn Health Assessment) – Virginia Apgar

Vaccination Distribution Logistics – Sara Josephine Baker

Hand-Held Laser Device for Cataracts – Patricia Bath

Portable Life-Saving Heart Monitor – Dr. Helen Brooke Taussig

Medical Mask Design – Ellen Ochoa

Dental Filling Techniques – Lucy Hobbs Taylor

Radiation Treatment Research – Cécile Vogt

Ultrasound Advancements – Denise Grey

Biodegradable Sanitary Pads – Arunachalam Muruganantham (with women-led testing teams)

First Computer Algorithm – Ada Lovelace

COBOL Programming Language – Grace Hopper

Computer Compiler – Grace Hopper

FORTRAN/FORUMAC Language Development – Jean E. Sammet

Caller ID and Call Waiting – Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) – Marian Croak

Wireless Transmission Technology – Hedy Lamarr

Polaroid Camera Chemistry / Digital Projection Optics – Edith Clarke

Jet Propulsion Systems Work – Yvonne Brill

Infrared Astronomy Tech – Nancy Roman

Astronomical Data Archiving – Henrietta Swan Leavitt

Nuclear Physics Research Tools – Chien-Shiung Wu

Protein Folding Software – Eleanor Dodson

Global Network for Earthquake Detection – Inge Lehmann

Earthquake Resistant Structures – Edith Clarke

Water Distillation Device – Maria Telkes

Portable Water Filtration Devices – Theresa Dankovich

Solar Thermal Storage System – Maria Telkes

Solar-Powered House – Mária Telkes

Solar Cooker Advancements – Barbara Kerr

Microbiome Research – Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello

Marine Navigation System – Ida Hyde

Anti-Malarial Drug Work – Tu Youyou

Digital Payment Security Algorithms – Radia Perlman

Wireless Transmitters for Aviation – Harriet Quimby

Contributions to Touchscreen Tech – Dr. Annette V. Simmonds

Robotic Surgery Systems – Paula Hammond

Battery-Powered Baby Stroller – Ann Moore

Smart Textile Sensor Fabric – Leah Buechley

Voice-Activated Devices – Kimberly Bryant

Artificial Limb Enhancements – Aimee Mullins

Crash Test Dummies for Women – Astrid Linder

Shark Repellent – Julia Child

3D Illusionary Display Tech – Valerie Thomas

Biodegradable Plastics – Julia F. Carney

Ink Chemistry for Inkjet Printers – Margaret Wu

Computerised Telephone Switching – Erna Hoover

Word Processor Innovations – Evelyn Berezin

Braille Printer Software – Carol Shaw

⸻

HOUSEHOLD & SAFETY INNOVATIONS:

Home Security System – Marie Van Brittan Brown

Fire Escape – Anna Connelly

Life Raft – Maria Beasley

Windshield Wiper – Mary Anderson

Car Heater – Margaret Wilcox

Toilet Paper Holder – Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner

Foot-Pedal Trash Can – Lillian Moller Gilbreth

Retractable Dog Leash – Mary A. Delaney

Disposable Diaper Cover – Marion Donovan

Disposable Glove Design – Kathryn Croft

Ice Cream Maker – Nancy Johnson

Electric Refrigerator Improvements – Florence Parpart

Fold-Out Bed – Sarah E. Goode

Flat-Bottomed Paper Bag Machine – Margaret Knight

Square-Bottomed Paper Bag – Margaret Knight

Street-Cleaning Machine – Florence Parpart

Improved Ironing Board – Sarah Boone

Underwater Telescope – Sarah Mather

Clothes Wringer – Ellene Alice Bailey

Coffee Filter – Melitta Bentz

Scotchgard (Fabric Protector) – Patsy Sherman

Liquid Paper (Correction Fluid) – Bette Nesmith Graham

Leak-Proof Diapers – Valerie Hunter Gordon

FOOD/CONVENIENCE/CULTURAL IMPACT:

Chocolate Chip Cookie – Ruth Graves Wakefield

Monopoly (The Landlord’s Game) – Elizabeth Magie

Snugli Baby Carrier – Ann Moore

Barrel-Style Curling Iron – Theora Stephens

Natural Hair Product Line – Madame C.J. Walker

Virtual Reality Journalism – Nonny de la Peña

Digital Camera Sensor Contributions – Edith Clarke

Textile Color Processing – Beulah Henry

Ice Cream Freezer – Nancy Johnson

Spray-On Skin (ReCell) – Fiona Wood

Langmuir-Blodgett Film – Katharine Burr Blodgett

Fish & Marine Signal Flares – Martha Coston

Windshield Washer System – Charlotte Bridgwood

Smart Clothing / Sensor Integration – Leah Buechley

Fibre Optic Pressure Sensors – Mary Lou Jepsen

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Women pulling Lever on a Drilling Machine, 1978 Lee, Howl & Company Ltd., Tipton, Staffordshire, England photograph by Nick Hedges image credit: Nick Hedges Photography

* * * *

Tim Boudreau 

About the whole DOGE-will-rewrite Social Security's COBOL code in some new language thing, since this is a subject I have a whole lot of expertise in, a few anecdotes and thoughts.

Some time in the early 2000s I was doing some work with the real-time Java team at Sun, and there was a huge defense contractor with a peculiar query: Could we document how much memory an instance of every object type in the JDK uses? And could we guarantee that that number would never change, and definitely never grow, in any future Java version?

I remember discussing this with a few colleagues in a pub after work, and talking it through, and we all arrived at the conclusion that the only appropriate answer to this question as "Hell no." and that it was actually kind of idiotic.

Say you've written the code, in Java 5 or whatever, that launches nuclear missiles. You've tested it thoroughly, it's been reviewed six ways to Sunday because you do that with code like this (or you really, really, really should). It launches missiles and it works.

A new version of Java comes out. Do you upgrade? No, of course you don't upgrade. It works. Upgrading buys you nothing but risk. Why on earth would you? Because you could blow up the world 10 milliseconds sooner after someone pushes the button?

It launches fucking missiles. Of COURSE you don't do that.

There is zero reason to ever do that, and to anyone managing such a project who's a grownup, that's obvious. You don't fuck with things that work just to be one of the cool kids. Especially not when the thing that works is life-or-death (well, in this case, just death).

Another case: In the mid 2000s I trained some developers at Boeing. They had all this Fortran materials analysis code from the 70s - really fussy stuff, so you could do calculations like, if you have a sheet of composite material that is 2mm of this grade of aluminum bonded to that variety of fiberglass with this type of resin, and you drill a 1/2" hole in it, what is the effect on the strength of that airplane wing part when this amount of torque is applied at this angle. Really fussy, hard-to-do but when-it's-right-it's-right-forever stuff.

They were taking a very sane, smart approach to it: Leave the Fortran code as-is - it works, don't fuck with it - just build a nice, friendly graphical UI in Java on top of it that *calls* the code as-is.

We are used to broken software. The public has been trained to expect low quality as a fact of life - and the industry is rife with "agile" methodologies *designed* to churn out crappy software, because crappy guarantees a permanent ongoing revenue stream. It's an article of faith that everything is buggy (and if it isn't, we've got a process or two to sell you that will make it that way).

It's ironic. Every other form of engineering involves moving parts and things that wear and decay and break. Software has no moving parts. Done well, it should need *vastly* less maintenance than your car or the bridges it drives on. Software can actually be *finished* - it is heresy to say it, but given a well-defined problem, it is possible to actually *solve* it and move on, and not need to babysit or revisit it. In fact, most of our modern technological world is possible because of such solved problems. But we're trained to ignore that.

Yeah, COBOL is really long-in-the-tooth, and few people on earth want to code in it. But they have a working system with decades invested in addressing bugs and corner-cases.

Rewriting stuff - especially things that are life-and-death - in a fit of pique, or because of an emotional reaction to the technology used, or because you want to use the toys all the cool kids use - is idiotic. It's immaturity on display to the world.

Doing it with AI that's going to read COBOL code and churn something out in another language - so now you have code no human has read, written and understands - is simply insane. And the best software translators plus AI out there, is going to get things wrong - grievously wrong. And the odds of anyone figuring out what or where before it leads to disaster are low, never mind tracing that back to the original code and figuring out what that was supposed to do.

They probably should find their way off COBOL simply because people who know it and want to endure using it are hard to find and expensive. But you do that gradually, walling off parts of the system that work already and calling them from your language-du-jour, not building any new parts of the system in COBOL, and when you do need to make a change in one of those walled off sections, you migrate just that part.

We're basically talking about something like replacing the engine of a plane while it's flying. Now, do you do that a part-at-a-time with the ability to put back any piece where the new version fails? Or does it sound like a fine idea to vaporize the existing engine and beam in an object which a next-word-prediction software *says* is a contraption that does all the things the old engine did, and hope you don't crash?

The people involved in this have ZERO technical judgement.

[a-regular-amount-of-spiders]

Headcannon:

So this is specifically based on shows/games/comics where Dick is shown to be technically unsavvy, which is not compatible with the frequent depictions of him being a tech wiz

As such, I propose this:

Dick is really really good with obscure technology and coding languages, almost exclusively.

The reason could be that he wanted to round out Batman (who knows all the more prevelamt stuff), or that he originates from the 80s, but personally I find this absolutely hilarious.

Like,

Tim: There’s nothing we can do, I’ve never even seen this kind of code before?

Dick: oh that’s Prolog, just gimme a second *shuts down the program with ease”

Tim: its fucking *what*

Babs: you know that and not python?

Dick: learning coding languages is time consuming :(

Other languages he could be good at include: Fortran, forth, MUMPS/Cache, Rebol, Perl, Brainfuck (or any esoteric coding language), Malbolge, APL etc etc.

Especially niche use case languages like MUMPS or purposefully difficult to use like Malbolge or Brainfuck have the potential for divine comedy

Additionally he should be good with older technology

Not just like, stuff used more in the 80s but shit like, can use a manual mass spectrometer. Stuff that’s been automated for awhile that no one can do manually cause it’s super hands on and complicated

[petervintonjr]

We open Womens' History Month 2025 with a study of the life of Annie J. Easley (neé McCrory). Born in 1933 Birmingham, Alabama, Annie showed a strong aptitude for chemistry and pharmacy and graduated from high school as valedictorian, but after she married in 1954, she took a job as a mathematics teacher in Birmingham. One of her quiet-but-determined goals in that role was to prepare members of her community for deliberately-challenging literacy tests that were part of the Black voter experience (see Lesson #166 for more on this shameful trend).

In 1954 she and her husband Theodis Easley moved to Cleveland, Ohio where she resumed her pharmacy studies, but was again pulled away by another opportunity --this time at the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory (an agency that would later be incorporated into NASA). Annie's innate math skills got her in the door and led to a 34-year career as a computer scientist. One of only four Black employees at the entire project, Easley's first significant contribution was on the computer research team that calculated the trajectory needed to get Friendship 7 to orbit in 1962. Later she joined the simulations team at Plum Brook Reactor Facility and worked on the Centaur booster rocket --a project which itself led down a path to calculating long-term damage to the ozone layer and proposing new alternative fuels (and the earliest prototypes for what are today known as hybrid vehicles). Without having ever formally earned a college degree, Easley taught herself FORTRAN (still a new programming language at the time!), and then SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol).

In 1977 Easley took a bit of time away from rocket science to earn her degree in mathematics, from Cleveland State University. During this interval she worked as a tutor and encouraged young Black students --particularly girls-- to consider a path in STEM. She then promptly got right back to work and continued with NASA until 1989. Towards the end of her career she also worked as an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) counselor, addressing discrimination complaints within the agency --no stranger to discrimination herself, having once had her portrait cropped out of a formal group photograph of the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory programming team.

For further study: a rich, in-depth interview with Easley by Sandra Johnson in 2001 (this is a NASA.gov website --therefore it might not be a bad idea to copy the entire text of this article and save a version for yourselves, to share with others. Posterity is... not presently being kind to stories like these.)

[idioticbat]

i'm curious about something with your conlang and setting during the computing era in Ebhorata, is Swädir's writing system used in computers (and did it have to be simplified any for early computers)? is there a standard code table like how we have ascii (and, later, unicode)? did this affect early computers word sizes? or the size of the standard information quanta used in most data systems? ("byte" irl, though some systems quantize it more coarsely (512B block sizes were common))

also, what's Zesiyr like? is it akin to fortran or c or cobol, or similar to smalltalk, or more like prolog, forth, or perhaps lisp? (or is it a modern language in setting so should be compared to things like rust or python or javascript et al?) also also have you considered making it an esolang? (in the "unique" sense, not necessarily the "difficult to program in" sense)

nemmyltok :3

also small pun that only works if it's tɔk or tɑk, not toʊk: "now we're nemmyltalking"

so...i haven't worked much on my worldbuilding lately, and since i changed a lot of stuff with the languages and world itself, the writing systems i have are kinda outdated. I worked a lot more on the ancestor of swædir, ntsuqatir, and i haven't worked much on its daughter languages, which need some serious redesign.

Anyway. Computers are about 100 years old, give or take, on the timeline where my cat and fox live. Here, computers were born out of the need for long-distance communication and desire for international cooperation in a sparsely populated world, where the largest cities don't have much more than 10,000 inhabitants, are set quite far apart from each other with some small villages and nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples inbetween them. Computers were born out of telegraph and radio technology, with the goal of transmitting and receiving text in a faster, error-free way, which could be automatically stored and read later, so receiving stations didn't need 24/7 operators. So, unlike our math/war/business machines, multi-language text support was built in from the start, while math was a later addition.

At the time of the earliest computers, there was a swædir alphabet which descended from the earlier ntsuqatir featural alphabet:

the phonology here is pretty outdated, but the letters are the same, and it'd be easy to encode this. Meanwhile, the up-to-date version of the ntsuqatir featural alphabet looks like this:

it works like korean, and composing characters that combine the multiple components is so straightforward i made a program in shell script to typeset text in this system so i could write longer text without drawing or copying and pasting every character. At the time computers were invented, this was used mostly for ceremonial purposes, though, so i'm not sure if they saw any use in adding it to computers early on.

The most common writing system was from the draconian language, which is a cursive abjad with initial, medial, final and isolated letter shapes, like arabic:

Since dragons are a way older species and they really like record-keeping, some sort of phonetic writing system should exist based on their language, which already has a lot of phonemes, to record unwritten languages and describe languages of other peoples.

There are also languages on the north that use closely related alphabets:

...and then other languages which use/used logographic and pictographic writing systems.

So, since computers are not a colonial invention, and instead were created in a cooperative way by various nations, they must take all of the diversity of the world's languages into account. I haven't thought about it that much, but something like unicode should have been there from the start. Maybe the text starts with some kind of heading which informs the computer which language is encoded, and from there the appropriate writing system is chosen for that block of text. This would also make it easy to encode multi-lingual text. I also haven't thought about anything like word size, but since these systems are based on serial communication like telegraph, i guess word sizes should be flexible, and the CPU-RAM bus width doesn't matter much...? I'm not even sure if information is represented in binary numbers or something else, like the balanced ternary of the Setun computer

As you can see, i have been way more interested in the anthropology and linguistics bits of it than the technological aspects. At least i can tell that printing is probably done with pen plotters and matrix printers to be able to handle the multiple writing systems with various types of characters and writing directions. I'm not sure how input is done, but i guess some kind of keyboard works mostly fine. More complex writing systems could use something like stroke composition or phonetic transliteration, and then the text would be displayed in a screen before being recorded/sent.

Also the idea of ndzəntsi(a)r/zesiyr is based on C. At the time, the phonology i was using for ntsuqatir didn't have a /s/ phoneme, and so i picked one of the closest phonemes, /ⁿdz/, which evolves to /z/ in swædir, which gave the [ⁿdzə] or [ze] programming language its name. Coming up with a word for fox, based on the character's similarity was an afterthought. It was mostly created as a prop i could use in art to make the world feel like having an identity of its own, than a serious attempt at having a programming language. Making an esolang out of it would be going way out of the way since i found im not that interested in the technical aspects for their own sake, and having computers was a purely aesthetics thing that i repurposed into a more serious cultural artifact like mail, something that would make sense in storytelling and worldbuilding.

Now that it exists as a concept, though, i imagine it being used in academic and industrial setting, mostly confined to the nation where it was created. Also i don't think they have the needs or computing power for things like the more recent programming languages - in-world computers haven't changed much since their inception, and aren't likely to. No species or culture there has a very competitive or expansionist mindset, there isn't a scarcity of resources since the world is large and sparsely populated, and there isn't some driving force like capitalism creating an artificial demand such as moore's law. They are very creative, however, and computers and telecommunications were the ways they found to overcome the large distances between main cities, so they can better help each other in times of need.

[liquidcrystalsky]

im not entirely done btw, i do eventually want to make gamefiles.ranid.space an actual website, i'm tempted to even have little 3d viewers included (so i might actually have to make that gltf exporter. groans)

I'll be posting about it here when it's done (it'll take months at LEAST) and also i have an rss feed now lol

i've just manually written it out but i want to get my website blog into a sort of database (hence why i was interested in mysql) so it can automatically update the feed, but right now it's just a post filled with a bunch of outdated info about cool brower stuff and a post about how im quitting social media so nothing cool yet but i'll talk on there much less frequently because it sucks to manually do all of this.

shout out people on the internet in like the 80s this is just how they did shit. actually i lied they had SQL back then as well. how old is SQL. damn 1974 lmao okay.

i just remembered that Fortran is still being used, what the hell do you mean the best way to make something is with a programming language made in the 50s. what do you mean it's used in supercomputers.

[soup-mother]

i love that fortran is still used as a programming language despite being from the 50's because when i say "a lot of climate models are written in fortran" it sounds like I'm talking about /lgbt/ on 4chan

[thefloatingwriter]

the grand master post of all things D3

made by a person who definitely thinks about a district that was never actually canonically described a little too much

so. let’s get into the fun stuff!

District Three consists of two main “areas” or zones: the Stills and the city of Stepanov, which is the main city in Three, named after the first mayor of Three, who’s full name was Hewlett Stepanov. It is still a popular name in Three, especially with the wealthy, and the Stepanov family are respected highly by citizens.

if you’ve read my other posts about d3 and everything related to it, some of this is just restating but some of it is new so make sure to find that stuff! here are all of the posts: Beetee + Wiress headcanons | District Three Lore + List of Victors + even more Beetee + Wiress headcanons | Wiress did not grow up poor - opinion | Wiress with Cats | The Latier Family Tree [extended version] | even MORE Beetee + Wiress headcanons | Beetee headcanons pertaining to his childhood | Wiress headcanons pertaining to music + music that is most prevalent in Three | really random hcs about Beetee’s great grandparents | Beetee’s dynamic with the other victors + a little of Wiress and Beetee’s relationship | Beetee’s love language | Beetress headcanons | Beetee’s parents and home life headcanons | Beetee and religion | Beetee and Brutus friendship | Beetress first meeting | Beetee and English (plus beetress) | How beetress fell in love + Beetee’s realization | Beetee post-rebellion | Axel Latier (Beetee’s nephew) and Barbara Lisiecki (Wiress’ sister) headcanons | D3 Tributes headcanons | Is D3 an underdog district? | Wiress’ family and their feelings about her Games | Beetee and forced prostitution [cw: graphic description/depictions of forced prostitution] | Beetee and Coriolanus Parallels | D3 Tribute List | Beetress and Power Dynamics | Various Beetee Headcanons | D3 Specific Beliefs | D3 Culture (All Social Classes) |

tags: dayne’s beetee tag | dayne’s wiress thoughts (TM) | the latier family | everything beetee/wiress is under beetress

fics: even here as we are standing now (i can see the fear in your eyes) [aka The Beetee Fic] | arbutus | asphodel | bellflower | laurel | aconite | aftershocks | hyacinth | freesia | ambrosia | hydrangea |

this will be separated into sections because i have a lot of thoughts lol

General Info:

District Three consists of the majority of Idaho/the Idaho Panhandle, some of west Washington, and east Montana. There also a tiny, tiny little bit of modern Oregon. D3 borders One to the south and east and Seven to the north and west.

The area that is considered “District Three” is not all used for living and the majority of it is forested land. Due to this, lumberyard workers from Seven travel the short distance from the two districts to harvest many of these trees. This is also true for miners from One in terms of gems.

Three makes and produces the vast majority of all technology used in Panem, cars, glass, and various drugs.

Child labor is a major issue, as children from the Stills begin working at factories as early as age four/five. Much of the time, there is an encompassing building attached to the factory that your parents work at for children who work.

Stepanov:

Saint Stepanov (typically shortened simply to Stepanov during the ADD¹/DHG²/BSR³ era) is the main city of Three where wealthier citizens live, or there version of Twelve’s “merchant class”. Adults who live here work as software developers and engineers, factory owners or managers, analysts, programmers, etc. These citizens typically live good lives with fulfilling jobs and nine times out of ten, no one will ever have to worry about where the food on the table comes from.

Only one year in Hunger Games existence were both children reaped were from the wealthier families of Three. The 48th Annual Hunger Games came as a shock to everyone, when both Wiress Lisiecki and Fortran Stepanov were reaped.

The square in Stepanov is where the Reapings take place. All children of reaping age can fit, but families usually have to stand in accompanying streets or are pushed to the back.

¹—After Dark Days | ²—During Hunger Games | ³—Before Second Rebellion |

The Stills:

The majority of Three’s population lives in poverty or on the cusp (about 150k out of 190k), in the area called the Stills, which consists of five separate neighborhoods/towns joined together by a square in the middle called The Interface. The Interface is where the main marketplace for the Stills is, including a popular bar called Harlow’s.

The majority of the Stills inhabitants work as factory workers/laborers. Almost always, these workers work in these jobs for their entire lives. They are not given the same opportunities as the citizens from Stepanov are. Due to this, a lot of animosity from both sides of the divide is very prevalent in everyday life.

Citizens from the Stills are taught from a young age about doing whatever it takes to survive. Because of this, tributes from the Stills typically do better in the Hunger Game than their wealthier counterparts.

— Midtown:

Midtown is the in between area to the Stills and Stepanov. Only around 10k of the overall population live here. Inhabitants of Midtown have jobs that include factory manager, training jobs, and about half of the jobs not pertaining to Three’s industry. People from Midtown are teachers, business/shop owners, and various other occupations.

Midtown is on the other side of Stepanov to the Stills, a short walk down a small hill. Due to the small population, few tributes in the Hunger Games are from Midtown, but there are exceptions. Examples of this include Circ Bauer, male tribute of the 10th Annual Hunger Games, and Matilyne Sanchez, female tribute of the 47th Annual Hunger Games. The 45th Games was the only year where both tributes from Three were from Midtown, with Coball Alves-Torres and Maple Adomaitytė.

Victors Village:

As of the Third Quarter Quell, there were five residents of Three’s Victors Village.

Address — Game — Name — Age at Victory

316 — 16th — Attican (“Atlas”) Hoffman — 16

340 — 40th — Beetee Latier — 19

348 — 48th — Wiress Lisiecki — 18

355 — 55th — Marie Teller — 15

368 — 68th — Haskell Nishimaru — 16

— The Victors:

Name: Attican Hoffman

Kill Count: Six

Type of Reaping: Regular reaping

Birthplace: Hewlett Memorial Hospital, Stepanov, District Three

Name: Beetee Latier

Kill Count: Nine

Type of Reaping: Rigged reaping

Birthplace: Apartment Building 9, Floor 6, No. 612, Three Falls, District Three

Name: Wiress Lisiecki

Kill Count: Five

Type of Reaping: Regular reaping

Birthplace: Hewlett Memorial Hospital, Stepanov, District Three

Name: Marie Teller

Kill Count: One (technicality; she caused six deaths, but only actually killed one)

Type of Reaping: Rigged reaping

Birthplace: Apartment Building 6, Floor 3, No. 321, Three Falls, District Three

Name: Haskell Nishimaru

Kill Count: Two

Type of Reaping: Regular reaping

Birthplace: Apartment Building 3, Floor 3, No. 387, Dreier Springs, District Three

Important Characters:

— Parents of Victors:

The Stills —

Ada Latier (née Brownstone) — mother of Beetee Latier. Lost her older sister, Cora Brownstone, to the sixteenth Games.

Linus Latier — father of Beetee Latier. Lost his younger brother, Hermes Latier, to the fourteenth Games. Linus and Ada found each other as the only person who understood the pain of losing a sibling to the Games.

Annabeth Teller (née White) — mother of Marie Teller. Family friend of the Latiers. Grew up in the Stills.

Fox Teller — father of Marie Teller. Grew up alongside Linus Latier and were childhood friends. Fox and Anna were the reason Ada and Linus met.

Stepanov —

Aurora Lisiecki — mother of Wiress Lisiecki. She runs a circus/theater group to entertain Threes and visiting Capitol citizens.

— Siblings of Victors:

Adeline Latier — younger sister of Beetee Latier. She’s younger than him by six years. She was thirteen when he was reaped.

Roent Latier — younger brother of Beetee Latier. He’s eight years younger than Beetee. He was eleven when he was reaped.

Tera Latier — younger sister of Beetee Latier. She’s ten years younger than Beetee. She was nine when he was reaped.

Ruther Latier — younger brother of Beetee Latier. He’s ten years younger than Beetee. He was nine when he was reaped. Tera and him are twins.

Dayta Latier — younger sister of Beetee Latier. She’s thirteen years younger than Beetee. She was six years old when he was reaped.

Barbara Lisiecki — older sister of Wiress Lisiecki. She’s four years older than Wiress and was twenty-two when she was reaped. Grew up in Stepanov but moved out to live in the Stills after she was expected to join the family business (the circus/theater group).

Various —

Amalia Remizova — female tribute of the 40th Hunger Games, age 13. Grew up in Stepanov.

Fortran Stepanov — male tribute of the 48th Hunger Games, age 18. Grew up in Stepanov.

Stefan Stepanov — older brother of Fortran Stepanov, Wiress’ district partner for the 48th Hunger Games. He was also in the same kindergarten class as Beetee. Grew up in Stepanov.

Appa Enriquez — owner of a small clothing store in the Stills. Distant relative of Beetee on his mother’s side. Grew up in the Stills.

Additional Information:

Three is not an “Anyone But A Career” district. They have never been one.

Every single time a Three wins the Hunger Games, a victor from One precedes them. Every. Single. Time. Atlas was preceded by Harrison Sanford, Beetee by Paris Sanford, Wiress by Zircon (“Connor”) Lewis, Marie by Emerald Reeves, and Haskell by Augustus Braun.

Three’s victors are sometimes seen as a buffer between the careers and the outlying districts. Most of the citizens of Three don’t have a problem with the Careers, except for some people from Stepanov.

In Stepanov, residents celebrate what children refer to as “Tree Time” during December—families use left over trees from the workers from Seven and display them in their homes with generational ornaments. Every year, at least one new ornament is added to the tree. Some families use breakable plastic to put new year’s resolutions inside of the ornaments and then break them on New Year’s to read them with family and friends at midnight.

Every Saturday, business owners in Midtown set up a marketplace for citizens, primarily ones from Stepanov.

In the Stills, names are very important. Due to the extreme poverty many are trapped in, a common phrase is, “I have nothing but my first and last”, meaning their first and last name.

[myfootyrthroat]

Reading a paper by a pretty respected figure in my field, and reminded why I have a lot of respect for him:

When I was in my first semester of undergrad, he was observing a lecture I was in, and I was just like "Who are you, why are you here?" (like, politely. He sat next to me and I had no idea who he was.)

We had a delightful chat about retro computers and underappreciated programming languages (I believe he works primarily in Fortran). I didn't realize what a big deal he was until like a year later.

[frank-olivier]

The story of BASIC’s development began in 1963, when Kemeny and Kurtz, both mathematics professors at Dartmouth, recognized the need for a programming language that could be used by non-technical students. At the time, most programming languages were complex and required a strong background in mathematics and computer science. Kemeny and Kurtz wanted to create a language that would allow students from all disciplines to use computers, regardless of their technical expertise.

The development of BASIC was a collaborative effort between Kemeny, Kurtz, and a team of students, including Mary Kenneth Keller, John McGeachie, and others. The team worked tirelessly to design a language that was easy to learn and use, with a syntax that was simple and intuitive. They drew inspiration from existing programming languages, such as ALGOL and FORTRAN, but also introduced many innovative features that would become hallmarks of the BASIC language.

One of the key innovations of BASIC was its use of simple, English-like commands. Unlike other programming languages, which required users to learn complex syntax and notation, BASIC used commands such as “PRINT” and “INPUT” that were easy to understand and remember. This made it possible for non-technical users to write programs and interact with the computer, without needing to have a deep understanding of computer science.

BASIC was first implemented on the Dartmouth Time-Sharing System, a pioneering computer system that allowed multiple users to interact with the computer simultaneously. The Time-Sharing System was a major innovation in itself, as it allowed users to share the computer’s resources and work on their own projects independently. With BASIC, users could write programs, run simulations, and analyze data, all from the comfort of their own terminals.

The impact of BASIC was immediate and profound. The language quickly gained popularity, not just at Dartmouth, but also at other universities and institutions around the world. It became the language of choice for many introductory programming courses, and its simplicity and ease of use made it an ideal language for beginners. As the personal computer revolution took hold in the 1970s and 1980s, BASIC became the language of choice for many hobbyists and enthusiasts, who used it to write games, utilities, and other applications.

Today, BASIC remains a popular language, with many variants and implementations available. While it may not be as widely used as it once was, its influence can still be seen in many modern programming languages, including Visual Basic, Python, and JavaScript. The development of BASIC was a major milestone in the history of computer science, as it democratized computing and made it accessible to a wider range of people.

The Birth of BASIC (Dartmouth College, August 2014)

Friday, April 25, 2025

[lboogie1906]

Annie Jean Easley (April 23, 1933 – June 25, 2011) was a computer scientist, mathematician, and rocket scientist. She was born in Birmingham to Samuel and Mary Easley. She sought to be a nurse, but she switched to pharmacy once she started high school.

She entered Xavier University. She completed two years of study she returned to Birmingham. She married a man in the military. She began working as a substitute teacher in Jefferson County, Alabama. She helped members of her community prepare for literacy tests required for voter registration.

She moved to Cleveland where her husband’s family was located. She read an article highlighting twin sisters who worked as “human computers” at the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory, which was absorbed into NASA. She applied and two weeks later began her 34-year-long career with NASA as a computer scientist and mathematician.

She was one of only four African American employees in the computational section. She was on the front line of space research and subsequent space missions that began with the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit in 1962. Her talents were utilized in the Computer Services Division, where some of her earliest work involved running simulations for the Plum Brook Reactor Facility.

She began working on nuclear-powered rocket systems including the Centaur high-energy booster rocket, which had its first successful launch in 1963. She realized that she would need additional training. When NASA gradually replaced its “human computers” with “machine” computers, she learned computer programming languages like Fortran and Simple Object Access Protocol. She returned to school to complete a BS in mathematics from Cleveland State University while working full-time.

She worked with local tutoring programs encouraging younger students to explore their interests in what would be known as the STEM field. She worked as an EEO counselor, addressing race, gender, and age discrimination complaints from NASA employees.

Her legacy continues to inspire countless students to make an impact in the STEM field. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[river-gale]

2, 5 12, 27 with (of course) River Gale?

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

i think it has to be that scene where they talk about register in english and how all our most formal syntax is latin and greek in origin and our least formal is usually germanic. just, the fact that they know that and are willing to randomly spend several minutes explaining it. i fell instantly in love

5. What's the first song that comes to mind when you think about them?

someone put 'Simulation Swarm' by Big Thief in a mars house playlist and i haven't stopped thinking about it since. river and aubrey....

like wrong gender obviously but i think of them when i hear it. so.

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

i put this in a fic once already but i just feel in my heart that they know fortran. the programming language from 1957 bizarrely still in use among engineers. like, if you asked them to solve any problem in fortran, they could do it, and the solution would be bizarre, totally unreadable to anyone else, and LIGHTNING fast. i have programming style headcanons for every pulley character but this one is my fave

27. FREEBIE QUESTION!!

CARTE BLANCHE TO TALK ABOUT RIVER GALE!? LET'S GOOOO

i'm putting this under a readmore because i can't stop yapping.

i have so much to say. i could write individual essays about their politics, their gender, and their relationship to their sibling, but i want to talk about the argument they have with january sort of mid-book

i love this argument because they both have a point! january has a point bc gale's policies suck and because gale is obviously super privileged in their education. when i first read it, i thought gale was being kind of obtuse for not acknowledging that, but...

on like my third reread i realized i've been in this argument on gale's side lmao. i'd like to think i'd respond more maturely now that i've been there a couple times, but in the moment, "i can't argue with you about this because you're too smart for me" is really deeply unpleasant to hear! it doesn't feel like the other person is pointing out privilege, it feels like they're saying "i can't connect or engage with you on this because i (a) don't trust you enough to believe you'll listen to me or pay enough attention to see my argument when i don't express it perfectly, in fact i think you don't care at all about what i have to say, and (b) you are different from me in a way that is inherent and immutable, so much so that i can't even discuss things with you." and it's easy to see why that hurts!

and gale probably feels that last one way more because their halo reading means their brain is actually, physically different from everyone else's! january is 100% valid for feeling overwhelmed in this moment and for these reasons, but to gale, who connects with people by debating them bc they care about other people's opinions, it probably feels like a moderately insulting rejection.

i also think gale is the sort of person who views a debate or an argument as an opportunity for synthesis—disagreeing with someone and pointing out the counterarguments isn't to tear their argument down, it's to make it stronger by giving it an opportunity to address its flaws!! it's to arrive at the truth together!! it's a way to grow closer to people by learning how they think!! but we can see here that january views it as a violent takedown, which is completely valid of him given what gale and their pr team did to him at the beginning of the book!! that WAS a violent takedown, it lost him his job, and it was his first introduction to gale, so it's totally reasonable of him to assume that's how they work all the time, even though it's extremely not!!

i just love gale so much, because they obviously care so much about other people when the other people are right there in front of them. and they try really hard to tone the argumentative curiosity down, because they know it makes people uncomfortable, but it's their truest way of expressing that care. and it's so easy to misinterpret. and if you really think about it this conversation is kind of tragic for them, especially if you read them as having feelings for january at this point!

tl;dr: i think it's a fantastic character dynamic packed into the span of a short conversation! thank you for reading my impromptu river gale essay <3