[Numpy-discussion] Fortran was dead ... [was Re: rewriting NumPy code in C or C++ or similar]

[Dag Sverre Seljebotn]

On 03/16/2011 08:10 PM, Ravi wrote:
> On Monday 14 March 2011 15:02:32 Sebastian Haase wrote:
>> Sturla has been writing so much about Fortran recently, and Ondrej now
>> says he has done the move from C/C++ to Fortran -- I thought Fortran
>> was dead ... !?   ;-)
>> What am I missing here ?
> Comparing Fortran with C++ is like comparing Matlab with Python. Fortran is
> very good at what it does but it does not serve the same audience as C++. The
> typical comparisons work like this:

<snip>

I think the main point being made by most here though is that *in 
combination with Python*, Fortran can be quite helpful. If one is using 
Python anyway for the high-level stuff, the relative strengths of C++ 
w.r.t. Fortran that you list become much less important. Same for 
code-reuse: When only used from a Python wrapper, the Fortran code can 
become so simplistic that it also becomes reusable.

Dag Sverre