Carl Banks wrote: > On Mar 26, 10:11 am, "Andy Dingley" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >>On 26 Mar, 14:20, "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >> >>>what are the advantages of using Python for >>>creating number crunching apps over Fortran?? >> >>If you have to ask, you've not experienced enough Fortran to know its >>sheer horror. >> >>You can write programs in Python that do usefully complicated things, >>and you can get them to work in a reasonable time. Fortran can't do >>this, for anything more than the trivial. "Classic" Fortran tasks of >>the past are now seen as trivial. OK, so they did it to a lot of data, >>but they really didn't do anything very complex to it. > > > You couldn't be more incorrect. I have run some very old (pre-Fortran > 77) programs that are very far from trivial. > > >>You can also write Python that other people can read and maintain. You >>can't do this in Fortran, without a truly insane amount of trouble. > > > This is a lie. I've seen some Fortran code that was hellspawned, and > some that was clear as glass. The latter came about without a "truly > insane amount of trouble". > > >>As >>Fortran programs have historically been authored and hacked on by >>successive generations of grad students, this is the most vital >>feature of all. > > > Perhaps this is your impression because it's the only Fortran code > you've ever been exposed to? > > >>Finally we're no longer so interested in "number crunching". Number >>crunching used to consist of simple operations over vast arrays of >>data, although this was data with remarkably simple structure by >>today's standards. These just aren't the major class of problems of >>interest today. > > > I suspect you're speaking from a narrow perspective, because "number > crunching", as you define it, is still a problem of interest and > heavily researched. Maybe it's not in your field. Anyways, you seem > to be ignorant of the complexities of "simple operations over vast > arrays", as if it you could accomplish these operations with a few > lines of Python and numpy. That might be true for your homework, but > good number-crunching codes often did a lot of stuff under the covers. > > Hear hear. Python and Fortran both have their place. I'm a grad student in Electromagnetics (radio frequency research) and I depend a lot on "number crunching" to help me design the latest and greatest rader array to the coolest cell phone that will connect anywhere. I actually use python to speed up my development of codes for Fortran. I prototype some function that I want in python and then use the final draft of it in my fortran code. What used to take several hours I can do in less than one by leveraging both languages for what they're good for, Python for RAD and Fortran for fast number crunching of my research.
Chris -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
