People still use fortran?

Question

People still use fortran?

Answer 1

Learn Fortran. It is the basis of most programming languages. Understanding Fortran will allow you to understand the roots of most other languages.

Answer 2

You would be surprised. A lot of people still use Fortran. I have a friend that works for NASA and they still use it to model the computation fluid dynamics for the shuttle launches. It is a extremely good introductory language for learning the basics of programming. By learning fortran you should be able to learn other languages fairly easy.

Answer 3

FORTRAN is particularly well suited for scientific computations and that is why your scientists still like it. It is not well suited for object oriented programming and CS guys hate it.



Matlab and Python are scripting languages. Matlab is extremely powerful as a development tool. Whenever I am doing development work (work in which I am not sure of the best approach), doing the work in Matlab takes me perhaps 1/3 the time it would take me to do the same work in a compiled language. Matlab is also geared toward scientific computing. Like FORTRAN, its arrays are indexed from 1, not 0 as in C. Also, like FORTRAN, its arrays are stored by column, not rows as in C. If you can deal with those kinds of idiosyncracies, then I suggest that you learn Matlab. Having Matlab on your resume will go over better in most cases than FORTRAN.

Answer 4

You may be more comfortable with Fortran. Java and C++ are very similar in various ways. For example, Java was developed based on the C/C++ syntax, so of course there are huge similarities. Fortran is older, but still has the same basic procedural constructs as any programming language: step by step do this then do that. A beginning programming class will cover the beginner's material anyway, regardless of the specifics of the language. You are trying to learn the basic concepts of programming in general.

Answer 5

I am on my first step in the master ,"CFD" and Actually I've just finished the basic points of fortran , It's really a good language with a common sense expressions and statements



but I am wondering if I am with fortran, I'll be an old fashion or what ? .. is it a language still used, specially in Aerodynamics and CFD



also, what is the way to begin to learn it ? " any book recommendations ? tutorials ?

and what compiler do you recommend ?

Answer 6

lets see.. well to tell you the truth, i really have no clue about what your talking about.. but considering everyone else who has answered this question has said Fortran, i suppose ill have to agree.



anyways, how bout i tell you a story. :)

once apon a time there was a professor who was really really super smart. now this wasnt any ordinary professor, no this

had amazing super powers and extremely good looks..

((to hear more of the story, rate me BEST ANSWER, and ill put the next part in another question of yours that i answer tomorrow.))



thanks :)



GO FORTRAN!!!

((whatever that it.))

maybe you can teach me a little something, about

what all this stuff your talking about, is.

Answer 7

Fortran is easy and quick to learn, but very hard to master. This may seem contradictory, but think of it as learning to speak and writing, and being able to write like Shakespeare.

The thing is that Fortran's strength is its number crunching capability and efficiency in that respect, and the influence the program's structure has on the final speed. For instance, with large multi-dimensional matrices, accessing elements in the wrong order may reduce the speed by order of magnitude by causing frequent load from the main computer memory to the cache, while accessing elements in the exact way they are stored will restore performance.



Python is an interpreted language. MATLAB is a commercial tool. They may get you there, but while you may save on development time, your final program will be slow to execute. What is needed here? A quick one-off answer, or massive amount of runs for lots of data processing? If he former, got with Python or Matlab. If the later, Fortran is still the king of the hill.



As for computer science guys thinking Fortran users are dinosaurs, well, their perception is flawed and colored by what they teach these days; I presume those IT folks are in their 20's, right? Then they've never really been exposed to Fortran. And if you think about it, 15 years ago, people were nuts over C. Then it was C++. Then .Net. Or Java. See a trend here? The languages come and go.

But Fortran has such a strong library of time proven codes -- some are legacy, perhaps even archaic, but they WORK -- that it has to remain.



I still can write Fortran code (for number crunching--Fortran is NOT for system programming and interface and windows, the same way a Formula 1 is not meant to deliver piano--that will out perform anything anyone can write in any other language. That is why I still code in Fortran.