Re: Fun with C

[Peter C. Chapin <PChapin@vtc.vsc.edu>]

On Sat, 23 Apr 2011 13:47:51 -0700 (PDT), "George P."
<george.priv@gmail.com> wrote:

>Surprisingly, while it went through series of dramatic transitions
>(f90 to f08),  it seems that F community is not obsessed with backward
>compatibility as much as C community.  Compilers are able compile and
>link to old legacy code but for those who writes software there is a
>new format.
>
>Anyone knows how widely it is still being used and what is
>demographics of it?

Fortran is definitely still being used. I have at times lurked on
comp.lang.fortran and it is at least as active as this group (I think more
active). And yes, starting with Fortran 90 the language was utterly
transformed and is now reasonably modern. I believe the latest version
(Fortran 2008) is even object oriented.

My impression is that Fortran is still primarly used in its traditional
area of numeric computation where C is considered an upstart language. In
fact in a head-to-head comparison between C and Fortran it is common for a
Fortran program to outperform an equivalent C program. I've explored this
effect myself with a toy program that does Gaussian elmination. Thus people
interested in maximum numeric performance are drawn to Fortran.

Ada could also be a contender in this application area but Fortran's array
operators are so nice and modern Fortran compilers are so mature that the
language is hard to beat when it comes to numerical applications.

In any case, don't joke about Fortran as if it's some kind of dinosaur. It
will just make the people in the Fortran community roll their eyes in
disgust... or amusement. :)

Peter