Xref: utzoo comp.lang.fortran:712 comp.lang.c:10579 Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!hc!beta!jlg From: jlg@beta.UUCP (Jim Giles) Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran,comp.lang.c Subject: Re: Should I convert FORTRAN code to C? Summary: More modern? Keywords: language conversions, FORTRAN, c Message-ID: <20008@beta.UUCP> Date: 6 Jun 88 20:58:29 GMT References: <2742@utastro.UUCP> Organization: Los Alamos Natl Lab, Los Alamos, N.M. Lines: 47 In article <2742@utastro.UUCP>, rlr@utastro.UUCP (Randy Ricklefs) writes: > We will soon start porting software from a number of different sources to a > micro-processor-based UNIX system. Most of the code is in various dialects > of FORTRAN. The question that arises is whether to convert all this stuff > to a more modern language, particularly c. This suggests several questions > which I hope the NET readers will help answer (without starting a 100-years > war on languages ... please! :-) ): C is not all that much more 'modern'. It was developed more recently. Fortran is a higher-level language than C (as admitted even by Ritchie). > 1) Are people actually initiating new projects in FORTRAN, or are they > maintaining and porting old FORTRAN code? Most code (new and old) in major scientifc computing environments is Fortran, even when C is available. Whether this is because Fortran is actually superior, or just programmer inertia is a qeustion that spurs that 100-years war you complained about. > 2) Does the answer to 1) change if we restrict discussion to PC's & Macs? I write Fortran code for PC's. I don't write C code for PC's. I prefer to write Modula-2 code for PC's. I like writing SmallTalk code for PC's, but the executables are too slow. I know some people who write Fortran exclusively - on PC's as elsewhere. > 3) Is c a suitable replacement for FORTRAN in terms of mathematical capabil- > ities and portablility? On UNIX and UNIX-like systems, the Fortran support library is written almost entirely in C. The only real problem with C is the lack of the concept of an array (such references are always turned into pointers). This makes some (admittedly rare) constructs difficult to do in C. > 4) Are there reliable FORTRAN to c translators available under MS-DOS or UNIX > that will allow moving over to c without re-coding the world? Depends on what you mean by 'reliable'. If your definition doesn't include efficiency as a requirement, there are probably some such tools. > Thanks in advance for the help! I'm afraid I didn't help much. Without specifics on the purpose and size of the code you want to move, I can't really advise you on the desirability of converting it. (Nor can anyone else.) J. Giles Los Alamos