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Should Undergraduates Be Taught Fortran?

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the or-spend-it-building-forts dept.

Mike Croucher writes "Despite the fact that it is over 40 years old, Fortran is still taught at many Universities to students of Physics, Chemistry, Engineering and more as their first ever formal introduction to programming. According to this article that shouldn't be happening anymore, since there are much better alternatives, such as Python, that would serve a physical science undergraduate much better. There may come a time in some researchers' lives where they need Fortran, but this time isn't in 'programming for chemists 101.' What do people in the Slashdot community think?"

4 of 794 comments (clear)

  1. FORTRAN is better than Python by tjstork · · Score: 0, Troll

    because Python is interpreted and FORTRAN is compiled. And honestly, lets admit it, the whole object oriented thing has pretty much failed and its time to pack it up and get procedural again.

    --
    This is my sig.
  2. Re:Oh come on. by Plumber,+Programmer, · · Score: 1, Troll

    Python is the *last* language you should learn.

    And only if you absolutely must use it.
    I wouldn't describe it as "pudding" though. That's too tasty.

  3. Re:How about Cobol? by thethibs · · Score: 0, Troll

    Then stop hiring teenagers.

    --
    I'm a Programmer. That's one level above Software Engineer and one level below Engineer.
  4. Re:Oh come on. by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 0, Troll

    And Visual Basic should be taken out, shot, drowned, burnt and sterilized for all it's abilities to make things unsafe and bug-ridden.

    I find it ironic how there's lot of vitriol directed at the "unsafety" of VB (which is definitely quite real), while it still has a long way to go to reach Perl in that department.