It seems to be a long-standing shibboleth of scientific computing/Fortran culture. (It's in the third-ed. Jargon File: http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/C/codes.html ) Cray, for example, uses it - http://docs.cray.com/books/004-2179-005/html-004-2179-005/cg... - and here's Guy Steele using it in relation to Fortress - https://labs.oracle.com/sunlabsday/docs.2007/Talks/Track4/St... So it's by no means an infallible sign that the user lacks any kind of high expertise in computing.