[FRIAM] Programming Languages

[Bob Ballance]

At the first conference on Object-oriented Frameworks for Scientific Programming, the room divided more or less down the center. On one side, attendees said “I love overloaded operators in C++ because I can make my code look just like the physics equations.” On the other side, attendees said “I love overloaded operators in C++ because I can make my code look just like FORTRAN.”

These days, I focus on  Elixir and Erlang, both functional languages that share the same virtual machine so they are interoperable. Elixir has a gentler syntax, but Erlang has the more powerful libraries. Erlang also has a pretty well-developed interface into C, since they originally used it to control telephone switches.

… bob

> On Aug 9, 2020, at 8:56 AM, Roger Frye <frye.roger at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Galileo wrote in Italian in Opera Il Saggiatore
> [The universe] cannot be read until we have learnt the language and become familiar with the characters in which it is written. It is written in mathematical language, and the letters are triangles, circles and other geometrical figures, without which means it is humanly impossible to comprehend a single word.  
> 
> On Sat, Aug 8, 2020 at 10:55 PM Russell Standish <lists at hpcoders.com.au <mailto:lists at hpcoders.com.au>> wrote:
> On Sat, Aug 08, 2020 at 11:13:36AM -0600, Prof David West wrote:
> > 
> > For specific domains, a language that allows easy, straightforward expression
> > of domain concepts is superior. COBOL for business applications, FORTRAN
> > (FORTRESS, Guy Steele's parallel FORTRAN) for physics, and some intentional
> > DSL's.
> 
> I disagree with Fortran being ideal for Physics - probably some
> combination of Python or Julia would be. Actually, I'm hard pressed to
> find an obvious niche for Fortran these days - C++ is now a better
> language for High Performance Computing applications, for
> instance. Fortran has hung around in certain areas for cultural
> reasons.
> 
> Can't comment too much about Cobol for business applications, but I
> would have thought Java or C# might be more suited.
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Dr Russell Standish                    Phone 0425 253119 (mobile)
> Principal, High Performance Coders     hpcoder at hpcoders.com.au <mailto:hpcoder at hpcoders.com.au>
>                       http://www.hpcoders.com.au <http://www.hpcoders.com.au/>
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