On Mar 7, 2014, at 1:03 PM, John Ladasky <john_lada...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

> 
> As for FORTRAN?  This week, I actually downloaded an application which 
> required a FORTRAN compiler.  This is the only FORTRAN application I've ever 
> needed.  It's not old code, the first revision came out about 10 years ago.  
> More than once, I have queried Google with the phrase "Why isn't FORTRAN dead 
> yet?"  For some reason, it lives on.  I can't say that I understand why.  
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Well, I’d claim that for what it was designed for (FORTRAN stands for FORmula 
TRANslator after all), it is still pretty da*mn good.  It generates extremely 
fast, robust code that requires much less debugging effort than the equivalent 
C or C++ requires.  Most of the physicists I know still write FORTRAN, although 
they no longer do so exclusively.

Of course, as has been pointed out, the HUGE code base of scientific and 
numerical analysis code that already exists in FORTRAN makes rewriting sort of 
a waste of grant (or company) money.

-Bill
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