From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,a9b0810d3106d9b8 X-Google-NewGroupId: yes X-Google-Attributes: gida07f3367d7,domainid0,public,usenet X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news1.google.com!news1.google.com!news2.google.com!Xl.tags.giganews.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!local2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!news.giganews.com.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2011 06:37:04 -0500 From: Peter C. Chapin Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Fun with C Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2011 07:36:52 -0400 Organization: Vermont Technical College Message-ID: References: <1908th3tyz101.1f6c5w8t9mggy.dlg@40tude.net> <2118e788-7b3e-4d25-8d0f-5e60498e3a3b@cu4g2000vbb.googlegroups.com> <1hnl95prvrt6i$.1s675gncbjxsu$.dlg@40tude.net> <5d44db50-ceff-4f4d-8bc7-714f31fbca06@hd10g2000vbb.googlegroups.com> <0eba8ffa-6d67-4957-8be3-8fbc3c2ea903@u38g2000prd.googlegroups.com> <093a1d39-29b6-4278-a759-72138296bd94@j28g2000vbp.googlegroups.com> X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 6.00/32.1186 trialware MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Usenet-Provider: http://www.giganews.com X-Trace: sv3-s4BwWvmoTSKe9GzeNllTsQ5NpVzaRRJ/mY0dKPgSCwl6h6mLn4e6ADb1aXEJ+CE113M/zEMRsOvQ6ed!uMvFBY7GZEXTwYTUYVjW/pErWAXzlAgAXNmKd3WiWJkh0y1PEu0sIIizLhDOmNjuwzyV9lQ= X-Complaints-To: abuse@giganews.com X-DMCA-Notifications: http://www.giganews.com/info/dmca.html X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.40 X-Original-Bytes: 3115 Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:19031 Date: 2011-04-24T07:36:52-04:00 List-Id: On Sat, 23 Apr 2011 13:47:51 -0700 (PDT), "George P." 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