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From: reggie@dinsdale.paradyne.com (George W. Leach)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: Fortran (LONG, you may think it's religious.)
Message-ID: <1990Jul27.135343.22078@pdn.paradyne.com>
Date: 27 Jul 90 13:53:43 GMT
References: <11053@chaph.usc.edu>
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Reply-To: reggie@dinsdale.paradyne.com (George W. Leach)
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In article <11053@chaph.usc.edu> ajayshah@aludra.usc.edu (Ajay Shah) writes:
>I saw a huge number of postings citing one or the other reason
>given which Fortran is the best computing solution around.  I'll
>describe one experience here.. see what you think of it.

     Many of these postings indicated that it is the best computing
solution around for specific types of applications, the the best computing
solution in general.

[lots of stuff deleted]

>My grouse with the "fortran-style-programmer" lies in the way he
>takes fortran to be the black-box solution to every computing
>problem.  There is something so myopic there, it really gets me
>irritated talking with such a specimen.  Instead of thinking in
>terms of a huge space of possibilities where fortran programs are
>one (pretty limited) option, there is the mentality of
>approaching everything as a fortran program.


      This is not limited to FORTRAN programmers.  Substitute your
favorite language for FORTRAN and you can find people who fit the mold.
FORTRAN and C were both developed with certain types of applications in
mind.  Both were used as general purpose languages by a great many
programmers.  FORTRAN's attraction as a general purpose language is
not as great as it was since C has gained so much popularity.  But
FORTRAN's original purpose dictates that it continue to be used.

      Often availability of a suitable implementation dictates the
language that will be used.  At other times it may be company policy
or other factors such as taking into account who will maintain the code
and what are the expectations of those programmers?  Being too clever
or employing too many different tools can have a negative impact as
well.  You may limit portability by using tools that are not universally
available.  There has to be a balance that is struck that takes into account
all factors.



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