[R] Fortran vs R

Charles Annis, P.E. Charles.Annis at StatisticalEngineering.com
Wed Sep 23 17:54:43 CEST 2009


WARNING!  Biased opinion.

I'm an old guy who learned programming nearly 50 years ago when FORTRAN (IV)
was it, unless you wanted to write machine language which, being an
engineer, I was less interested in than in getting an answer so I could get
on with things.

I like FORTRAN, but I can't think of anything that R couldn't do better and
easier.  R is interpreted and thus is slower than compiled FORTRAN but
unless you have a very (very, very) specific application where you need
compiled speed, R wins by a mile.

Don't learn FORTRAN.  Invest your time in Python if you must learn another
language.  R would be my choice if I were you.

Mister Know-It-All


Charles Annis, P.E.

Charles.Annis at StatisticalEngineering.com
phone: 561-352-9699
eFax:  614-455-3265
http://www.StatisticalEngineering.com
 
-----Original Message-----
From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org] On
Behalf Of Paul Simonin
Sent: Wednesday, September 23, 2009 11:13 AM
To: R Help Listserve
Subject: [R] Fortran vs R

Hello R users,
  I have a basic "computer programing" question. I am a student 
currently taking a course that uses Fortran as the main programming 
language, but the instructors are open to students using any language 
they are familiar with. I have used R previously, and am wondering if 
there is any benefit to my learning Fortran, or whether I should stick 
with R for this class. Any advice? Are there clear benefits to using 
Fortran, or things Fortran can do that R cannot?
Thank you very much for any thoughts!
Sincerely,
Paul S.

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