3 ms·
sorta kinda, but not really, python isn't supplanting fortran, it's supplanting Matlab/IDL for prototyping and visualization, and half-baked command languages f
by Avshalom 17y ago
sorta kinda, but not really, python isn't supplanting fortran, it's supplanting Matlab/IDL for prototyping and visualization, and half-baked command languages for interfacing with packages of data reduction routines. Which is still nice, especially things like (to take astronomy) AIPS/IRAF, specialized packages of routines that are controlled by the worst command language possible.
- ajdecon 17y agoAlso note that the code at the core of packages like numpy is often still written in Fortran or C. For example, I'm pretty sure all the linear algebra processing in numpy is handled by the popular LAPACK written in Fortran. Note that software like Matlab and IDL also generally uses these well-understood packages. Fortran isn't going anywhere, we're just hiding it in the background.
- gaius 17y agoEveryone uses LAPACK. If you came along with your own versions of those routines, no-one would would trust them. LAPACK et al are the most optimized, most debugged code on the planet. Hardware vendors design around LAPACK. It's incredibly important. Also check out Sage: http://www.sagemath.org/ http://www.sagemath.org/
- adw 17y agoYep. The Intel F9x compiler smokes everything - at least in part because its versions of LAPACK/BLAS/ATLAS are so aggressively optimized.
- aeroevan 17y agoAlso, f2py (distributed with numpy) makes it easy to wrap fortran subroutines in python.