Fortran vs Python - Newbie Question

[Chris Smith]

Carl Banks wrote:
> On Mar 26, 10:11 am, "Andy Dingley" <ding... at codesmiths.com> wrote:
> 
>>On 26 Mar, 14:20, "Noma... at gmail.com" <Noma... at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>what are the advantages of using Python for
>>>creating number crunching apps over Fortran??
>>
>>If you have to ask, you've not experienced enough Fortran to know its
>>sheer horror.
>>
>>You can write programs in Python that do usefully complicated things,
>>and you can get them to work in a reasonable time. Fortran can't do
>>this, for anything more than the trivial. "Classic" Fortran tasks of
>>the past are now seen as trivial. OK, so they did it to a lot of data,
>>but they really didn't do anything very complex to it.
> 
> 
> You couldn't be more incorrect.  I have run some very old (pre-Fortran
> 77) programs that are very far from trivial.
> 
> 
>>You can also write Python that other people can read and maintain. You
>>can't do this in Fortran, without a truly insane amount of trouble.
> 
> 
> This is a lie.  I've seen some Fortran code that was hellspawned, and
> some that was clear as glass.  The latter came about without a "truly
> insane amount of trouble".
> 
> 
>>As
>>Fortran programs have historically been authored and hacked on by
>>successive generations of grad students, this is the most vital
>>feature of all.
> 
> 
> Perhaps this is your impression because it's the only Fortran code
> you've ever been exposed to?
> 
> 
>>Finally we're no longer so interested in "number crunching". Number
>>crunching used to consist of simple operations over vast arrays of
>>data, although this was data with remarkably simple structure by
>>today's standards. These just aren't the major class of problems of
>>interest today.
> 
> 
> I suspect you're speaking from a narrow perspective, because "number
> crunching", as you define it, is still a problem of interest and
> heavily researched.  Maybe it's not in your field.  Anyways, you seem
> to be ignorant of the complexities of "simple operations over vast
> arrays", as if it you could accomplish these operations with a few
> lines of Python and numpy.  That might be true for your homework, but
> good number-crunching codes often did a lot of stuff under the covers.
> 
> 
Hear hear. Python and Fortran both have their place. I'm a grad student 
in Electromagnetics (radio frequency research) and I depend a lot on 
"number crunching" to help me design the latest and greatest rader array 
to the coolest cell phone that will connect anywhere. I actually use 
python to speed up my development of codes for Fortran. I prototype some 
function that I want in python and then use the final draft of it in my 
fortran code. What used to take several hours I can do in less than one 
by leveraging both languages for what they're good for, Python for RAD 
and Fortran for fast number crunching of my research.

Chris