Comment Re:What.... (Score 2, Funny) 129
The response from the general Australian public: "who are you, and what have you done with our politicians?"
The primary purpose of the DATA statement is to give names to constants; instead of referring to pi as 3.141592653589793 at every appearance, the variable PI can be given that value with a DATA statement and used instead of the longer form of the constant. This also simplifies modifying the program, should the value of pi change.
* Early FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers
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