Is FORTRAN Still Kicking?

Algorithm wrangler queries: "I'm beginning to wonder if I should invest the time in learning FORTRAN. Although it is, arcane it seems to be the best tool when it comes to demanding optimization tasks and heavy computations. C/C++ does not cut it for me - it is simply too easy to make mistakes and I find myself using half of my time hunting bugs unrelated to the problem at hand. Additionally, although tools like Matlab exist they don't provide the power that justify the huge price tag they carry. I find any script based language (Matlab, Numeric Python, Scilab) to be inadequate as soon as it is necessary to use loops to describe a problem and using such tools for recursive systems can be a real pain. As another data-point, the Netlib repository seems to be very FORTRAN oriented, and it is a true gold mine when it comes to free routines for solving almost any computing task. What bothers me though is that FORTRAN code is really ugly and the language lacks almost any modern day language feature (I know about Fortran 90 but it is not much nicer than F77, and no one seems to use it). Can it really be true that the best tool we have for heavy duty computing is a 25 year old language, or have you found anything better - free or non-free?"

Comments

Re:A beauty all its own

[Anonymous Coward]

You know, it is truly insightful answers like the above that make "Ask Slashdot" the wonder that it truly is:

Submitter: Slashdot, I am wondering - is it worth it to learn X?

Poster: I used to use X, and I found it truly comforting. I'm a Y convert now, though!

+5 Informative, baby!!!

Re:A beauty all its own

[jazman_777]

FORTRAN was one of the first languages that I learned and although I don't use it much now it still has a special place in my heart. I always found its simplicity and structure sort of comforting.

I always liked how I could define variables on the fly anywhere in the code. Really catered to my total lack of organization and self-discipline. I can do that in Perl, now, too!

I still shudder...

[Subcarrier]

FORTRAN has the same kind of cherubic appeal as a very very large hirsute man wearing a tutu.

You can leave FORTRAN behind, but you can never forget it. Sometimes, I wake up at night, thinking about it -- wishing I didn't.

Real Programmers Use FORTRAN

[Anonymous Coward]

For your reading pleasure, I posting an excerpt from the story "Real Programmers Don't Use PASCAL" which should give you a hint of what you may be in for:

The easiest way to tell a Real Programmer from the crowd is by the programming language he (or she) uses. Real Programmers use FORTRAN. Quiche Eaters use PASCAL. Nicklaus Wirth, the designer of PASCAL, gave a talk once at which he was asked "How do you pronounce your name?". He replied, "You can either call me by name, pronouncing it 'Veert', or call me by value, 'Worth'." One can tell immediately from this comment that Nicklaus Wirth is a Quiche Eater. The only parameter passing mechanism endorsed by Real Programmers is call-by-value-return, as implemented in the IBM\370 FORTRAN-G and H compilers. Real programmers don't need all these abstract concepts to get their jobs done -- they are perfectly happy with a keypunch, a FORTRAN IV compiler, and a beer.

• Real Programmers do List Processing in FORTRAN.
• Real Programmers do String Manipulation in FORTRAN.
• Real Programmers do Accounting (if they do it at all) in FORTRAN.
• Real Programmers do Artificial Intelligence programs in FORTRAN.

If you can't do it in FORTRAN, do it in assembly language. If you can't do it in assembly language, it isn't worth doing.

And my personal favorite:

A Real Programmer might or might not know his wife's name. He does, however, know the entire ASCII (or EBCDIC) code table.

The whole story can be found here.

Take the time to become a "Real Programmer." You'll be glad you did.

F**k is a swear word even in Fortran

[4dGirl]

Back when I used to work in a University Maths department we used Fortran almost exclusively. Because its quicker and easier to code up most math problems in Fortran rather than C and because of the extensive numerical libraries available. The compiler we used would tell you off if you used swear words for your variable names. So of course our favourite game was looking for expletives that the compiler didn't know about. Some of them got pretty inventive!!

Edsger Dijkstra, computing pioneer is dead !

[Anonymous Coward]

I just read some sad news on the internet.
It seems that Dijkstra is dead.
I'm sure the whole slashdot crowd will mourn his death. Even if you don't like stacks, there is no denying that goto is harmful.

Re:Use Fortran 90

[the eric conspiracy]

I remember when we thought we could do anything with FORTRAN 4.

Well, it is Turing Complete.

Re:Use Fortran 90

[ebbe11]

there was no performance difference between f77 and f90, C was 10% slower than f77/90, and C++ was 100% slower.

100% slower? That means it didn't run at all!

What you probaly meant was that Fortran was 100% faster than C++.