The March of Progress

Funny but sad, too - especially if one happened to be programming in those intermediate years. From Cay Horstmann:

1980: C 
	printf("%10.2f", x);
1988: C++
	cout << setw(10) << setprecision(2) << showpoint << x;
1996: Java
	java.text.NumberFormat formatter = java.text.NumberFormat.getNumberInstance(); 
	formatter.setMinimumFractionDigits(2); 
	formatter.setMaximumFractionDigits(2); 
	String s = formatter.format(x); 
	for (int i = s.length(); i < 10; i++) {
		System.out.print(' '); 
		System.out.print(s);
	}
2004: Java
	System.out.printf("%10.2f", x);