Numpy specifically doesn't require Fortran. (That was the reason for the original separation of numpy and scipy.) Numpy will compile f2py (to allow running fo

Numpy specifically doesn't require Fortran. (That was the reason for the original separation of numpy and scipy.) Numpy will compile f2py (to allow running fortran code in python) and I think it uses the Fortran lapack bindings in some cases if a Fortran compiler is present. However, both of those are optional. Numpy deliberately avoids requiring Fortran in any way. Scipy, however, uses quite a bit of Fortran in addition to C and requires a Fortran compiler to build. At any rate, as you noted, it's hardly dead. Modern Fortran is a domain-specific language, for the most part, but it's quite popular within that domain (scientific computing and HPC).