Introduction

Colleges often invite faculty from other schools to evaluate the local curriculum. One such reviewer had almost finished his visit to a computer science department, and was about to give the dean of the school a favorable report, when someone carelessly mentioned having taught a course in numerical methods using Fortran. Incredulous, the visitor arched an eyebrow and looked down his nose with sudden contempt. “Fortran,” he sneered, “is the language of peasants !”