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From: tsh@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Greg Kamer)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: Fortran 88
Keywords: fortran standards
Message-ID: <908@mace.cc.purdue.edu>
Date: 24 Oct 88 15:49:41 GMT
Article-I.D.: mace.908
References: <2045@unmvax.unm.edu> <657@convex.UUCP> <660@convex.UUCP> <15821@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Distribution: comp.lang.fortran
Organization: Purdue University
Lines: 42


> In article <894@mace.cc.purdue.edu> tsh@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Greg Kamer) writes:
> >This strikes a VERY familiar chord! The group I work for consists of
> >about 30 researchers who want to solve THEIR problem, don't want to
> >take the time to generalize the code and document it properly, and
> >yet feel perfectly justified about complaining when something I end
> >up having to install for general use doesn't solve the next problem 
> >that is encountered.

> I have now seen several comments to the effect that scientists can't
> program, or are at least sloppy & don't follow modern programming
> constructs and software engineering practices.

> This is an over-generalization. I can show you
> code written by scientists that would teach programmers a thing or
> two. On the other hand, I've seen very elegant FORTRAN code written
> by a programmer, which very greatly influenced my own programming
> style, but which nevertheless was quite wrong.

> However, I do resent this kind of condescending attitude towards
> scientists who program. Remember, physicists invented the computer
> and programming languages. I think we deserve our 2 cents' worth.

Sorry, I should have mentioned my background.
I am a macromolecular crystallographer by profession (degree actually
in Biology, as it was the closest thing available at Purdue), NOT
a computer scientist. I write new code, integrate other users code,
and maintain and document the stuff. My comments are those of
a scientist who specializes in the computational aspects of his
field and who is frustrated by the quality of the code passed on
to him for integration into general programs. 
I took the time to learn how to program well
(Fortran, Pascal, C and a lot of assembly languages I am doing my
best to forget...) and it bugs the heck out of me when I have to
deal with code that is not only rubbish from a stylistic point of
view, but often, more insidiously, contains scientific errors
that are a real pain to find due to the poor coding.
-- 
      Greg Kamer - Purdue Macromolecular Crystallography

      tsh@mace.cc.purdue.edu    (internet - read every day)
      xtsh@purccvm.bitnet	  (bitnet - read very rarely)