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From: hirchert@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: NOT Educating FORTRAN programme
Message-ID: <7300004@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 24 Jan 90 19:22:00 GMT
References: <11962@stealth.acf.nyu.edu>
Lines: 42
Nf-ID: #R:stealth.acf.nyu.edu:11962:ux1.cso.uiuc.edu:7300004:000:2286
Nf-From: ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!hirchert    Jan 24 13:22:00 1990


brnstnd@stealth.acf.nyu.edu writes:
>Normal Fortran has only two advantages over C, namely a wider set of
>standard builtins and a larger support base. Fortran 90 loses the
>support base (why did X3J3 have to change the comparison names?) and
>adds just two other advantages: named loops and the multilevel break. 
>Other articles list many of the advantages of C over Fortran.

X3J3 didn't change the comparison names.  It added symbolic synonyms.  This
means you are allowed to write something like
      IF (X<Y) THEN
but your existing code that says
      IF (X.LT.Y) THEN
will work, too.  In general, a standard-conforming Fortran 90 compiler should
also be a standard-conforming FORTRAN 77 compiler, so the existing base of
code should port to Fortran 90 with no difficulties other than those one can
expect going to a new FORTRAN 77 compiler.  Eventually, there will parts of
the existing support base that one will want upgrade to take advantage of new
features in Fortran 90 (e.g., allocating work arrays directly rather than
requiring them to be passed in), but the existing support base should remain
available until that happens -- evolution rather than revolution.

For much of the community that uses Fortran, the important advantage that
Fortran has over C is superior performance, a reflection of both more mature
optimization technology and of the greater inherent opportunities for
optimization in Fortran.  Presumably, C optimization technology will eventually
be as mature as that used in Fortran compilers, but the only way to catch
up on optimization opportunities is to add declarations or directives to assert
those conditions that are inherently asserted in Fortran.

Please note that I am not asserting that Fortran is a better language than C,
only that there is a class of problems for which Fortran is better suited than
C.  (There is also a range of programs for which C is better suited and several
classes of problems for which neither language is particularly well suited.)

If you program in C and are happy, that's fine with me.  Just don't assume I
am stupid because I recognize that there are benefits in continuing to program
part of my work in Fortran.


Kurt W. Hirchert     hirchert@ncsa.uiuc.edu
National Center for Supercomputing Applications