>Fortran is simple enough for domain specialist to write bad code and achieve good results with it. I don't understand the idea behind this statement. Nobody b

>Fortran is simple enough for domain specialist to write bad code and achieve good results with it. I don't understand the idea behind this statement. Nobody but the specialist can produce efficient algorithms to solve a domain-specific problems, and Fortran isn't any simpler than C. If the writer argues that the implementation of the algorithm is bad when written by non-programmers, then you might be surprised to find out that it's usually the opposite. Computers are still incredibly simple in their basic design, so unless you hire a hardware-specialist programmer (like an x86 or CUDA/OpenCL specialist with background knowledge of the chips you'll use), knowing basic latencies in RAM operation, L-cache sizes and the ticks required for executing basic operations like floating point additions and XORs, is enough for the specialist to write better code, because he understand the algorithm, he can tailor it the hardware, and he actually cares, unlike most programmers/software engineers. Knowing how to use hundreds of libraries might be helpful when you're writing long "consumer" applications, but this kind of expertise has nothing to do with scientific and high-performance programming.