31–37 of 37 posts
> pi = 4.141592
Well, for the sake of a reasonable correctness in the code example. Must be a typo with the intended:
pi = 3.141592
Thanks for your efforts to help Fortran move forward.
[1]: https://fortran-lang.org/learn/quickstart/variables#declarin...
> Quick Start: Variables, Example: variable assignment [1].... > pi = 4.141592 Well, for the sake of a reasonable correctness in the code example. Must be a typo with the intended: pi = 3.141592 Thanks for your efforts to help Fortran move forward. [1]: https://fortran-lang.org/learn/quickstart/variables#declarin...
What stopped me a while ago was the availability of good free compilers. (the appeal is you could be faster than C for numerical code in Fortran, but I remember vaguely these compilers then would not be cheap)
I often nowadays find GNU GFortran the same speed or faster than Intel Fortan for FEM/CFD codes, while 10-15 years ago Intel Fortan was 10-20% faster in general. So these days I typically just recommend to go with GFortan which is easily available on most platforms.
- (Comment) "array operations, ... are slower than explicit loops" May be related to the following:
- No mention of vectors.
- No mention of LINPACK, LAPACK, etc.
- No mention of GPUs.
Several things surprised me, both in the blog post and the other comments. (Though hpcjoe's and enriquot's comments took care of the "What? Fortran is dead?" reaction.) - (Comment) "array operations, ... are slower than explicit loops" May be related to the following: - No mention of vectors. - No mention of LINPACK, LAPACK, etc. - No mention of GPUs.
Vectors would be arrays. Array operations will lose if the compiler doesn't scalarization/deforestation properly (if deforestation is an appropriate word when dealing with arrays rather than lists/trees). Subroutines libraries and GPUs are irrelevant.
I've been a Fortran user for (gawd help me) 35 years or so. I can say that rumors of its demise are greatly exaggerated. There are many languages, and language fads. Fortran was never sexy, never faddy. My research codes from 30+ years ago still compile w/o issue to this day, and run, on my linux laptop. Even using the big endian data files (gfortran has a nice switch for that). I don't really use it actively anymore…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I often nowadays find GNU GFortran the same speed or faster than Intel Fortan for FEM/CFD codes, while 10-15 years ago Intel Fortan was 10-20% faster in general. So these days I typically just recommend to go with GFortan which is easily available on most platforms.
For anyone doing HPC work and hasn't tried GFortran >=10, I highly suggest giving it a go. We switched to it for the arm64 improvements, but surprisingly also found a 20% speedup on the x86-64 target. My best guess is that it's a combination of IPO and autovec enhancements.