| Beliavsky 2007-07-24, 7:09 pm |
| Here is an excerpt of an interview of Wood Lotz of Absoft in Dr.
Dobb's Journal http://www.ddj.com/dept/64bit/201002096 .
DDJ: With all the hoopla about Java, Ruby, Python, and other languages
of the day, Fortran seems to get lost in the shuffle at times. Are
developers still using it? If so, for what and where?
WL: You are certainly correct that Fortran does not enjoy high
visibility in the current fashion world of computer languages. Fortran
used to be taught in many of the colleges but with the trend toward
Linux the focus has moved to C. C is also used to build the majority
of commercial business applications and newer languages like Java and
Ruby always attract attention. However, Fortran is still alive and
well, just not highly visible...
Fortran is still the most efficient language for writing very fast,
numerically intensive programs. It could be considered more primitive
in nature than C++, but its very nature allows one to apply more
advanced optimizations which result in faster code.
There is a LOT of existing Fortran code which just works and it is to
expensive and time consuming to recreate it or convert it to another
language so the old adage, 'If it ain't broke...' applies.
Fortran is one of the few languages with an active ANSI (American
National Standards Institute) committee working on new and improved
future versions of Fortran. There would be no committee if the
language was not used enough to warrant it.
At a national conference on High-Performance Computing (HPC) I
attended two years ago in Washington DC, it was stated that 50 percent
of the HPC applications are written in Fortran. So HPC customers, are
generally Fortran users. In fact. if you look at any supplier of HPC
tools, you will find the two languages they offer for software
development are, Fortran and C/C++. Companies like IBM and Intel who
also develop compilers offer only two languages: Fortran and C/C++.
Fortran applications are typically special purpose built apps, not the
stuff sold in shrink wrap boxes you see in the store. But, you
encounter the benefits of Fortran based apps every day. For example,
data for the doppler radar weather news you see on your evening news
is generated by Absoft Fortran running on a Linux server (nationwide);
large components of CFD programs, used to design of engines, aircraft,
automobiles, ships, and many other complex products are typically
written in Fortran; earth science programs such as weather, oil
drilling, atmospheric and ocean studies are written in Fortran; the
medical industry has developed Fortran-based applications to simulate
nano particles, genomes, dna and atomic structures; ditto drug
companies; banking and insurance industries use Fortran to develop
actuarial tables to trade funds or predict risk. The list goes on...
Chicken farmers even use Fortran to determine how to breed the most
cost effective chickens (feed/space/meat) based on genetic selection.
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