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From: herwin@osf1.gmu.edu (HARRY R. ERWIN)
Subject: Re: Is Ada likely to survive ?
Date: 1997/08/13
Message-ID: <5sstrj$9ci@portal.gmu.edu>#1/1
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References: <97080410223317@psavax.pwfl.com>
 <01bca387$42ffbce0$18a9f5cd@asip120>
Organization: George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Date: 1997-08-13T00:00:00+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>


Paul Van Bellinghen (pvanbell@mhv.net) wrote:

: >     Well, it's probably fair to ask "What constitutes survival?" If

: I think the prime example of a language that just refuses to give up the
: ghost is FORTRAN. Here's a language that had roots at least as far back as
: COBOL ( I really didn't research it - I'm just going by my vague
: recollection).  FORTRAN used to be the language of choice for the
: scientific community and remained so for non-real time applications right
: on through the 70s. I remember maintaining a cross compiler written for a
: microprocessor chip I was using at General Instrument Corp. back in 1980. I
: wrote some flight data analysis programs on a VAX/VMS in the early 80s at
: Loral Corp. Rather than seeing FORTRAN fade away, its proponents keep
: trying to "modernize" it (1977, 1994, etc..).

FORTRAN is still an important language in computational science. There are
a number of reasons why:
1. Highly efficient optimizing compilers
2. Highly reliable compilers
3. Implementations for distributed environments
4. Well-implemented libraries
5. Software reuse, and
6. User community inertia

I use C++ where most of my colleagues use FORTRAN, but that's because most
of my work involves combined discrete event/continuous simulations, and I
find C++ easier to use for those. 

--
Harry Erwin, Internet: herwin@gmu.edu, 
Web Page: http://osf1.gmu.edu/~herwin 
PhD student in computational neuroscience (how bats echolocate)
Lecturer for CS 211 (data structures and advanced C++)
Senior Software Analyst supporting the FAA