declarations summary

[beliavsky at aol.com]

Alex Martelli wrote:

> > socks off yet again, but I can't see counting on it. So the
successor
> > to Fortran (presuming it isn't C++, which I do presume) may be
> > influenced by Python, but probably it won't be Python.
>
> You appear to assume that Fortran is dead, or dying, or is gonna die
> soon.  I assume Mr. Beliavski will do a great job of jumping on you
for
> this, so I can save the effort of doing do myself;-).

Everyone needs a purpose in life :). I hope that Fortran 2003 and
future versions will be the successors of traditional Fortran, but I
may well be disappointed.

Many scientists and engineers do not have the motivation, the time, or
even the ability to master C++, generally acknowledged to be a language
for professional programmers. When performance is not paramount, they
can use Python (with Numarray or Numeric) and other array languages
like Matlab/Octave/Scilab as reasonable alternatives to Fortran.
Despite its high cost for non-students, Matlab is enormously popular
among engineers.