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What exactly is it about Fortran that makes it better for an HPC env and numeric computing than c++? Or is it more just an available libs/history question?
by totalperspectiv 7y ago
What exactly is it about Fortran that makes it better for an HPC env and numeric computing than c++? Or is it more just an available libs/history question?
- jonesetc 7y agoThe big thing I always see is that it has a few important limitations, and those limitations mean that extra optimizations can be used. https://stackoverflow.com/a/146186 https://stackoverflow.com/a/146186
- totalperspectiv 7y agoThat's a fantastic SO answer.
- semi-extrinsic 7y agoApart from string processing and a few other warts, Fortran is surprisingly similar to working with Numpy - avoiding explicit loops and doing operations on arrays, slicing notation, etc. It can make a lot of computational code really easy to write and easy to read, thus easy to understand and get right. Which makes sense when you recall ForTran = Formula Translator. It's literally designed as language where you should be able to write code that's one-to-one with your equations.
- sampo 7y ago> What exactly is it about Fortran that makes it better for an HPC env and numeric computing than c++? Fortran is an easy language to learn. A domain expert doesn't need to spend months or years to learn C++, they can write safe and performant Fortran code in almost no time.