Alex Martelli wrote: > > socks off yet again, but I can't see counting on it. So the successor > > to Fortran (presuming it isn't C++, which I do presume) may be > > influenced by Python, but probably it won't be Python. > > You appear to assume that Fortran is dead, or dying, or is gonna die > soon. I assume Mr. Beliavski will do a great job of jumping on you for > this, so I can save the effort of doing do myself;-).
Everyone needs a purpose in life :). I hope that Fortran 2003 and future versions will be the successors of traditional Fortran, but I may well be disappointed. Many scientists and engineers do not have the motivation, the time, or even the ability to master C++, generally acknowledged to be a language for professional programmers. When performance is not paramount, they can use Python (with Numarray or Numeric) and other array languages like Matlab/Octave/Scilab as reasonable alternatives to Fortran. Despite its high cost for non-students, Matlab is enormously popular among engineers. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list