Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!rutgers!mtunx!mtune!icus!limbic!gil
From: gil@limbic.UUCP (Gil Kloepfer Jr.)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: FORTRAN horrors
Message-ID: <108@limbic.UUCP>
Date: 2 Apr 88 04:49:13 GMT
References: <502@amethyst.UUCP>
Reply-To: gil@limbic.UUCP (Gil Kloepfer Jr.)
Distribution: na
Organization: ICUS Computer Group, Islip, NY
Lines: 40
Summary: This is the best followup yet...

In article <502@amethyst.UUCP> chris@spock.ame.arizona.edu (Chris Ott) writes:
>     The point of my article was: Fortran should be used for certain problems
>and C should be used for other problems. Each language has its own domain. It
>bothers me when people start saying that some language is the best for
>everything.


Would some of you out there PLEASE listen to both Chris and myself for once.

Somehow I my news thing-a-ma-gig program must have lost the original posting
that prompted this C vs. FORTRAN discussion.  What really blows my mind is
that I started and ended this SAME discussion months ago in comp.os.vms.
My conclusion was the same as Chris' -- I program in both FORTRAN and C,
and although I find FORTRAN to be a little deficient when it comes to some
applications -- mainly handling data of an unknown size (where you say to
yourself "Gee, I wish I had malloc()...") -- I find FORTRAN to be pretty
flexible for some really low-level kinds of stuff.  On the other hand, I've
also done some really kludgy things in FORTRAN (because I had to...)
rather than do it in C much more elegantly.  There really IS NO argument
for FORTRAN vs. C.  Really -- there isn't.

Computer languages are TOOLS for getting a job done.  You use the tools
you have to solve a PROBLEM presented to you, both in a classroom or
commercial environment.  Those that are truly GOOD programmers will be
able to solve the problem at hand with the tools they are given.  Sometimes
you don't have a choice to use C or FORTRAN, and now it is up to you as
a programmer to solve the PROBLEM with the tools you have, as much of
a pain as it is sometimes.  All of the positive arguments -- presenting
the features of your favorite language -- are absolutely right.  However,
nobody will rip FORTRAN, C, COBOL, BASIC, etc. off the face of the Earth
because <insert favorite language here> does this, this, and that better
than <insert most hated language here>.  You do what you have to do.

Enough already?  Or do we see the need to beat this one to death again?

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