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Fortran.io – a Fortran Web Framework

fortran.io

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Re: Fortran.io – a Fortran Web Framework

#161

Post by beambot »

vanderZwan wrote: post #33
6gvONxR4sf7o wrote: post #22

Fortran actually isn't a static language. It's evolved over time. The last significant revision according to wikipedia is just over a year old. The beauty and horror of it probably depends which era of it you're looking at.

IIRC, most people who use Fortran use it because there are extremely specialized physics libraries (or astronomy, or chemistry, and so on) that were probably written three to four decades ago by an extremely intelligent PhD student who lacks a proper programming background. Which suggests that the biggest source of horror would be that most code you'll come across was written by a non-programmer who is intelligent en…

Could be worse... Matlab?

Re: Fortran.io – a Fortran Web Framework

#162

Post by 7thaccount »

jofer wrote: post #109
throwaway2048 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of number crunching code relies on Fortran libraries even today. Install numpy, it will pull in Fortran stuff.

Numpy actually explicitly doesn't need fortran. It will use some fortran lapack libraries for optimizations if they're present, but it doesn't depend on fortran at all. Scipy is a different story. The need for a fortran compiler was a big part of the original rationale for the divide of numpy and scipy when they replaced numeric. Numpy was meant to be the lighweight/core version of things, and scipy was the full-fled…

I'd like to write some Fortran, but there are a few libraries I need like database access and I'd be set.

Re: Fortran.io – a Fortran Web Framework

#163

Post by sampo »

the_af wrote: post #118
aidenn0 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the late 90s I remember a saying roughly "I don't know what language scientists will be using in 20 years, but it will probably be named Fortran"

I also like the saying "you can write FORTRAN in any language".

After Fortran got its array syntax 29 years ago, there aren't many languages that you can use to write array-manipulating code like in Fortran. Maybe just Julia and NumPy?

Re: Fortran.io – a Fortran Web Framework

#164

Post by greglindahl »

palae wrote: post #119

I honestly am not too sure why there is so much derision regarding Fortran (ageism?). A lot of people don't seem to realize the importance this language still has in scientific computing.

Seems that many CS folks don't think much of Fortran because their programming languages survey course professor made fun of Fortran 77.

Fortran has moved on, even if you professor hasn't.

Re: Fortran.io – a Fortran Web Framework

#165

Post by voldacar »

lolinder wrote: post #128
favorited wrote: post #50

It's definitely not a dead language – a new Fortran front-end has recently been accepted into the LLVM project, joining Clang. So LLVM's only in-tree supported languages (excluding the various IRs) will be C, C++, Objective-C, and Fortran. It had been scheduled for merge into the LLVM monorepo 2 days ago, but has been delayed pending some additional architecture review.

Latin was dead long before it stopped being used in written works. It died when it stopped being spoken and stopped changing. I don't know if Fortran would be considered dead by the "no longer adapting" definition, but that it's still in use isn't proof it's alive.

Fortran receives updates to the language spec with new features, and modern fortran is pretty different both syntactically and semantically from the 70s fortran you are probably thinking of. It is also extremely fast, often faster than C due to less pointer aliasing which lets compilers optimize loops more. (or so I'm told)

Re: Fortran.io – a Fortran Web Framework

#166

Post by badrequest »

sampo wrote: post #163
the_af wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also like the saying "you can write FORTRAN in any language".

After Fortran got its array syntax 29 years ago, there aren't many languages that you can use to write array-manipulating code like in Fortran. Maybe just Julia and NumPy?

What are the highlights of Fortran's array manipulation capabilities?

Re: Fortran.io – a Fortran Web Framework

#167

Post by earenndil »

sampo wrote: post #163
the_af wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also like the saying "you can write FORTRAN in any language".

After Fortran got its array syntax 29 years ago, there aren't many languages that you can use to write array-manipulating code like in Fortran. Maybe just Julia and NumPy?

All array languages (apl and its derivatives).

Raku (perl6).

Re: Fortran.io – a Fortran Web Framework

#170

Post by ironmagma »

colechristensen wrote: post #41
ironmagma wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IIRC, FORTRAN is used heavily in the LINPACK/LAPACK libraries which are further used in higher level libraries such as numpy. So it’s likely true that it still sees use in control software running trains, banks, air traffic control, etc.

It is still heavily used for numerical code in various places, especially aerospace (to avoid reverifying code with new languages or just to ensure new work can be accurately compared with old work) There's even a CUDA compiler. As I understand it, lack of pointers makes it possible for fortran compilers to parallelize code quite well.

Fortran does have pointers, though. [1] Maybe they are just not common for most math operations on matrices?

[1] http://www.personal.psu.edu/jhm/f90/lectures/42.html

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