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From: wcs@ho95e.UUCP (x0705)
Newsgroups: net.lang
Subject: Re: What language do you use for scientific programming?
Message-ID: <163@ho95e.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 14-Aug-85 21:29:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: ho95e.163
Posted: Wed Aug 14 21:29:11 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 20-Aug-85 02:31:30 EDT
References: <909@oddjob.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ
Lines: 27

> 
> I've been curious for a while what scientist/engineering types on the net
> use for scientific programming.  I know the low regard in which fortran is
> held by the systems types on the net, but I haven't found anything better
> than fortran to use.
> [C has], clumsy i/o, and no > exponentiation operator.  
> The advantages of fortran in my opinion are 1.  > at least two real precisions
> 2. standard and powerful i/o routines, and 3.  > very wide availability with
> great portability (because of the existance of a standard for the language).
> Is there any other language which shares these
> properties but also has some of the constructs I would like to use (while,
> do ... while, case, structures, pointers).  Perhaps the answer is fortran
> itself; what new features does the upcoming revision to the fortran standard
> have?
>	Paul Schinder uucp: ..!ihnp4!oddjob!paul arpa: oddjob!paul@lbl-csam.arpa

Well, at least use RATFOR ( a preprocessor ) or full-scale Fortran-77 instead
of generic fortran, so you can have control structures.  I find the biggest
weaknesses fortran has for scientific programming are:
	- no recursion - makes everything tough, especially multiple integration
	- no dynamically dimensioned arrays ( though C is kind of clumsy also)
	- clumsy input, though this is less important for scientific prog.
On the other hand, complex arithmetic in C is really annoying.  However,
the C++ language lets you define objects like complex numbers, expontentiation,
lets you define better output routines, etc.
-- 
## Bill Stewart, AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ 1-201-949-0705 ihnp4!ho95c!wcs