OT: Language for the ages

[der Mouse]

> Suppose you wanted to write an application for a manufacturing
> process that will, in all probability, run for the next 30 years.
> [...]  I/O requirements are very modest, mostly simple keyboard and
> display.

I assume there also is no incredibly hairy computation going on, that
it's mostly basic arithmetic and conditional flow control, maybe with
some math functions like sin() or sqrt() thrown in.

> What would you write it in?

That would depend on a number of factors.  I'd probably pick C.  Maybe
/bin/sh.  Possibly even Lisp.

> So what would it be?   My vote is for FORTRAN.

I dunno.  It's a reasonable contender, certainly, but I still think I'd
go for something else.

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