NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #18/NN_1992_18.iso/spool/comp/lang/misc/2766

Internet Message Format | 1992-08-22 | 2.5 KB

Xref: sparky comp.lang.misc:2766 comp.edu:1304 comp.lang.forth:3019 comp.lang.fortran:3117
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc,comp.edu,comp.lang.forth,comp.lang.fortran
Path: sparky!uunet!cis.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!davis
From: [e-mail] ("John E. Davis")
Subject: Re: Small Language Wanted
In-Reply-To: [e-mail]'s message of Fri, 21 Aug 92 23:15:11 GMT
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Followup-To: comp.lang.fortran
Sender: [e-mail]
Nntp-Posting-Host: pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu
Reply-To: [e-mail]  (John E. Davis)
Organization: "Dept. of Physics, The Ohio State University"
Date: Sun, 23 Aug 1992 06:06:05 GMT
Lines: 34

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Greg Wilson) writes:
>  I regularly lambast physicists for using "old" languages like Fortran,
>  so I feel I should set a good example for students by using some
>  modern ideas myself)

   First of all, I have a PhD in Physics and it is true that like most
physicists that I know, I have never taken a course in computer science.  I
learned Fortran (from the VAX/VMS Fortran manual) because I was presented a
problem which required a numerical solution and the only available canned
routines were in Fortran.  Since that time, I have taught myself pascal, C,
and Lisp and I consider myself to be a better C programmer than most and I
feel much more comfortable with C than I do with Fortran.  However, I still
feel that Fortran is superior to C for numerical work in many respects.  The
ANSI C has improved the situation a bit (Old K&R C might take something like
`x = (a * b) / c' and rearrange it as `x = a * (b / c)' which could be deadly
for many algorithms).  In addition, C has nothing equivalent to Fortrans **
operator nor does it have complex types.  And arrays, C has no true array type
like Fortran does (One must use pointers to pointers ... to pointers).  Yes
Fortran is still superior to C for what it is intended to do: Numerical Work.
Anyone who ``regularly lambast physicists for using "old" languages like
Fortran'' is a little ignorant in my view.

  The only real thing that I miss in Fortran 77 is a pointer type.  There are
many times when I wanted to pass pointers to functions through common blocks.


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