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From: templon@copper.ucs.indiana.edu (jeffrey templon)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: Fortran vs. C for numerical work
Message-ID: <77134@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu>
Date: 8 Dec 90 05:23:22 GMT
References: <16671@csli.Stanford.EDU> <1990Dec5.022302.25764@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca> <16725@csli.Stanford.EDU> <1990Dec5.185852.5191@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca>
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In article <1990Dec5.185852.5191@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca> mroussel@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca (Marc Roussel) writes:

>     It's not just infix.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you have to
>declare every last variable in C?  Given some relatively simple conventions
>and judicious use of implicit, you almost never have to declare a simple
>variable in Fortran.  You also don't have to worry about which sqrt or log to

	This is very very dangerous.  It is probably one of the worst
features of Fortran.  If your compiler supports 'implicit none', i suggest
that you make that line 2 of every program you write.

	we had a big simulation code running to help in designing an
experiment; we put in some parameters to simulate misalignments of some
of the apparatus with respect to other parts.  based on varying these
parameters, we found there to be no effect due to misalignment.  well,
we did not pay so much attention to it, and it did matter.  a year later
when i was rewriting the code, i found that the parameters and been called
geoffx and geoffy when used in the calculation, and ge0ffx and ge0ffy
when set to whatever value.  FORTRAN in its infinite wisdom decided
to set the geoffx and geoffy parameters to zero for us, regardless of the
ge0ffx and ge0ffy input values.


					jeff