Skip to content

Correct inconsistent capitalisation of FORTRAN -> Fortran. #16

New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

Sign up for GitHub

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

Open
garymacindoe wants to merge 1 commit into
base: develop
Choose a base branch
from
Open

Correct inconsistent capitalisation of FORTRAN -> Fortran. #16

Show file tree
Hide file tree
Changes from all commits
Commits
Show all changes
1 commit
Select commit
File filter

Filter by extension

Filter by extension
Conversations
Failed to load comments.
Loading
Jump to
Jump to file
Failed to load files.
Loading
Diff view
Diff view
2 changes: 1 addition & 1 deletion introduction/01welcome.md
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ Prerequisites

In order to follow this course, you should at minimum already know:

* How to program in some language, (such as Basic, Python, Ruby, MATLAB, or FORTRAN) including:
* How to program in some language, (such as Basic, Python, Ruby, MATLAB, or Fortran) including:
* Variables including arrays or vectors
* For and while loops
* If statements and case switches
Expand Down
24 changes: 12 additions & 12 deletions introduction/02whycpp.md
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ getting hold of and using third-party libraries is much worse.
No Good Choice
--------------

There is no great choice of language for scientific programming. Python, Perl, and MATLAB are too slow, C and FORTRAN are insufficiently flexible and expressive, and C++ is just too darn complicated and hard. Of these unpleasant choices, however, we believe C++ is the best choice if both performance and expressiveness are important to your work.
There is no great choice of language for scientific programming. Python, Perl, and MATLAB are too slow, C and Fortran are insufficiently flexible and expressive, and C++ is just too darn complicated and hard. Of these unpleasant choices, however, we believe C++ is the best choice if both performance and expressiveness are important to your work.

C++ from Python, MATLAB, Perl, or Ruby: The Bad
-----------------------------------------------
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -55,15 +55,15 @@ C++ from Python, MATLAB, Perl, or Ruby: The Good

However, compared to these languages, C++ can be a **lot faster to run**.

C++, like C and FORTRAN, is a compiled language,
C++, like C and Fortran, is a compiled language,
where the code you type is not run directly, but translated into machine code before being run.

Compiled is not necessarily faster
----------------------------------

This speed is the main reason to try using a compiled language. However, even this is not the final story: good use of
non-compiled languages can produce code that is nearly as fast, and bad use of C++ can produce code which is slow.
Some modern languages with "just in time" compilation like Java and Julia can sometimes be nearly as fast as FORTRAN.
Some modern languages with "just in time" compilation like Java and Julia can sometimes be nearly as fast as Fortran.

Compiled languages for high-performance
----------------------------------------
Expand All @@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ Because it's easy to write very slow code with non-compiled languages, parallel
for running on supercomputers, are often written in compiled languages, and the tools for accessing parallelism (like OpenMP and MPI)
are better in these languages.

So, if you want code that runs really fast, especially on state of the art supercomputers, then you might want to use C++, C, or FORTRAN.
So, if you want code that runs really fast, especially on state of the art supercomputers, then you might want to use C++, C, or Fortran.

C++11
-----
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -111,15 +111,15 @@ we teach the old-style C++, but will occasionally mention the C++11 versions for
C++ from C or Fortran: The Good
-------------------------------

If you're used to programming Python or Perl, C++, unlike C or FORTRAN, makes available some of the features you'll have grown to expect:
If you're used to programming Python or Perl, C++, unlike C or Fortran, makes available some of the features you'll have grown to expect:

* associative arrays (hashes)
* linked lists
* exceptions
* stream-based IO,
* object orientation.

Support for these, and for good programming practices like testing, is much stronger in C++ than in FORTRAN or C.
Support for these, and for good programming practices like testing, is much stronger in C++ than in Fortran or C.

C++ can be fairly readable
--------------------------
Expand All @@ -130,15 +130,15 @@ In C++, I can do things like
Moments::InertiaTensor(protein_database["amylase"].GetCoordinateArray());
```

which is, in my view, easier to read than the equivalent might be in FORTRAN or C, and almost as pretty as it would be in Python.
which is, in my view, easier to read than the equivalent might be in Fortran or C, and almost as pretty as it would be in Python.

C++ from C or Fortran: The Bad
------------------------------

Because C++ is much more complicated, it is harder for the compiler to produce really efficient machine code, so C++ programs tend on average to be a bit slower
than FORTRAN code.
than Fortran code.

It is possible to craft C++ which is just as fast as C or FORTRAN, but naively used, C++ can often be slower.
It is possible to craft C++ which is just as fast as C or Fortran, but naively used, C++ can often be slower.

As always, it is a good idea to profile your code before attempting optimisation.

Expand All @@ -156,13 +156,13 @@ Are you sure you want to learn C++?
C++ is:

* Faster than Python, Perl, MATLAB, Mathematica or Ruby.
* More expressive and flexible than FORTRAN or C.
* More expressive and flexible than Fortran or C.


But C++ is:

* Complicated, error-prone, and difficult to learn.
* Harder than C or FORTRAN to make really fast.
* Harder than C or Fortran to make really fast.
* More verbose and less expressive than Python, Perl, MATLAB, Mathematica or Ruby.
* Tough to get running, with hard-to-install libraries and cumbersome build tools.

Expand All @@ -171,7 +171,7 @@ So, why C++?

Our view is that despite these problems, C++ is a good choice for future scientific programmers to learn as a *second* scientific programming language:

* It introduces object orientation and dynamic data structures if you're coming from C or FORTRAN,
* It introduces object orientation and dynamic data structures if you're coming from C or Fortran,
* It introduces pointers, memory management, and strict typing if you're coming from Python or MATLAB.

If you're an aspiring computational scientist, you'll need to get to grips with all these concepts
Expand Down