On Tue, 31 Aug 2004 14:30:22 GMT Colin Carter colincarter@onetel.com wrote:
C++ programmers tend to be 'function orientated' whereas FTN programmers tend to be 'in line' orientated. Perhaps it is often a matter of programming style which makes the most difference. But one must always keep in mind two things: these days many languages are initially, partially compiled down to the same pseudo-language for a latter step, and FOTRAN has been under development by very (and I mean very) experienced people for a very long time and scientific programmers still turn to FORTRAN.
One reason that FORTRAN has lasted so long (as it is one of the earliest high level languages) is that there is a tremendous body of scientific programs and libraries written in FORTRAN, and the compiler people have been able to very aggressively optimize the code. Another advantage is that there are many built-in features of FORTRAN that tend to generate inline code where C and C++ result in library calls.
(aside: I think that LISP is the oldest computer language because it was invented before the computer).