Re: Help from fellow Fortran Users

From: Richard Maine (nospam_at_see.signature)
Date: 01/27/04 

Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2004 10:02:17 -0800

Pierre Asselin wrote:
> I know I'm not making a good case, it's a bit frustrating....

So why do you care? Nobody here is telling you that you shouldn't
use whatever tools you find best for your applications, whether
that includes Fortran or not. You don't really have to justify
to us that there is something uniquely peculiar about Fortran
in order for us to think it reasonable for you to use other tools.
I already think it reasonable...a lot more reasonable than the
attempts to overgeneralize.

> the big difference between Fortran and other compilable languages
> is that Fortran is truly a high-level language.

So are some others. My viewpoint is more that C is the "peculiar"
one here, though in a way that can be useful. I find C peculiar
in that it isn't a very high-level language, but more of a
semiportable assembler. But then, that's just as broad a generalization
as the ones you have made. Neither yours or mine are really
accurate.

> For whatever historical reasons, C is the portable language today,
> and Fortran just ain't.

Now that's just baloney. As Walter said:

Walter Spector <w6ws_xthisoutx@earthlink.net> writes:

> Both Fortran and C can be very portable...

We could trade all variants of portable/nonportable C/Fortran.
Many examples of all 4 combinations exist. I won't bother.

This thread doesn't seem to be getting any more useful. Though
it is staying polite, it isn't being constructive. I'm going
to stick with my position that all the statements about one
language being inherently better/worse/peculiar/whatever
compared to all other languages are just unjustified generalizations.
I haven't seen anything close to a justification here and I don't
expect to because I don't think they exist.

Go ahead and use whatever you think appropriate - just don't think
that you have to find global justifications for your choice as
abstract properties of the language. 

-- 
Richard Maine                       |  Good judgment comes from experience;
email: my first.last at org.domain  |  experience comes from bad judgment.
org: nasa, domain: gov              |        -- Mark Twain

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