>One nit: can you really support your assertion that C++ and Fortran are the >two major languages of scientific computing? In my world, Matlab is used by >about 20x (maybe 50x) as many people as C++. I suspect there's a major divide >depending on field. Science is a big place.
It's just as you said: it depends heavily on the field. In my experience, fields requiring heavy calculations (like CFD or ab initio computational chemistry) tend to use C++ and Fortran (actually mostly Fortran if the project was not started less than 10 years ago). Unfortunately, I can't find a ready-to-read list for CFD but for CC, it was easier: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_quantum_chemistry_and_solid-state_physics_software The explanation is simple: with BLAS and Fortran and 100-1000 CPU cores, some calculations already require weeks to complete.
