When this came out, I was just thinking to myself that it had been a
long time
(apprx 3 months) since I had seen a "Fortran is dead" thread.
For a change, I'll share some of my thoughts.
1. Apart from its intrinsic merits (or lack thereof), a language survive
because
there is a substantial amount of software written with it.
In case of Fortran, there are gazillions of lines of code still in use
today,
that need to be maintained, improved, ported to new machines, etc.
2. I can't understand why "they" are so eager to get rid of Fortran,
what benefit
they would get from its disappearance.
3. Instead of declaring Fortran bad, why don't they try hard to make
their favorite
language better : stable, reliable, backward compatible, STRONGLY
NORMALIZED.
In the case of the numerous modern incarnations of C, good luck!
4. "They" spend a lot of energy trying to declare Fortran dead. If
"they" had devoted
the same amount of energy to rewriting the millions of lines of Fortran
code in use
in another language, the picture might be totally different. We probably
would have
modules and array syntax in APL today, and the C fanatics would be
trying to declare
it unlearnable, unimplementable, etc.
5. Please don't retire Fortran, at least until I retire myself. I make a
living writing
programs in this language that has been declared dead 30 years ago!
Bertrand Meltz
****************************************
* Bertrand Meltz
* CEA / Bruyeres-le Chatel
* BP 12
* 91680 Bruyeres-le-Chatel
* FRANCE
* Tel : (33) [0] 1 69 26 57 83
* Fax : (33) [0] 1 69 26 70 93
* e_mail : [log in to unmask]
****************************************
Jing Guo wrote:
> A friend of mine pointed me to the following website:
>
> "PETITION TO RETIRE FORTRAN"
>
> http://www.fortranstatement.com
>
> Being a long time Fortran developer for scientific computing, I
> think those statements make a lot of sense, although I am not
> sure I will sign the petition.
>
> I wonder what people on this list think about those statements.
>
> --
> ** Any opinion expressed is my own and not that of NASA. **
> ________________________________ _-__-_-_ _-___--- _____________________
> Jing Guo, [log in to unmask], (301)614-6172(o), (301)614-6297(fx)
> Global Modeling and Assimilation Office, Code 900.3, NASA/GSFC
> Greenbelt, MD 20771
>
>
|