begin Matt Holland <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Thanks for the warning. I'll look into that. Hell, maybe I'll just > learn Fortran, I know it can't be that hard... just antiquated and > weird, no? you'll be pleasantly surprised. f90/95 is extremely C like. in fact, much of the language (i mean, literally language, not libraries) will look and feel just like C code.
but with perks. suppose you have a grid that goes from -a to a. instead of having an array going from 0 to 2a-1 (barf) or even worse, an array with a dummy cell at 0 so it goes from 1 to 2a (double barf) you can actually define arrays that are indexed from -a to a. and fortran isn't as strongly typed as C. figuring out what math function takes what type is just not much of an issue. > >on using canned code... > > > >i didn't mention anything because i want to discourage using other > >peoples' code (especially when you have no idea what a "good" answer > >will look like ahead of time). > > I tend to differ with you there. If there's well-established code that > solves a problem, and I can understand the interface to that code, I'm > inclined to use it. The trouble comes when the code is poorly > documented this was the first step in my (admittedly extreme) position. nothing was documented even nearly as well as i wanted it to be. even the C stuff wasn't well documented. it was a very odd canned routine that had a nice interface, well defined parameters and talked about what kinds of problems the program was suited for. plus, i initially had an aversion to learning fortran. so i didn't start out with a good attitude. you have a much healthier attitude than i had. :) > hasn't been tested sufficiently. Unfortunately, those may both be > problems when it comes to C libraries for numerics, because it seems > like most people continue to use Fortran for those sorts of things. And > the old tried and true code is probably much better than anything I > could write with out changing my area of specialization. don't sell yourself short. you're a scientist. with the right attitude, a scientist is like a jedi. we can do anything with the right frame of mind and a good work ethic. it's a noble profession; anyone who's made it this far can do anything he/she sets the mind to. :) obi-wan pete _______________________________________________ vox-tech mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech
