C Versus Fortran-77 for Scientific Programming

Article type: Research Article

Authors: MACDONALD, TOM

Affiliations: Cray Research, Inc., Eagan, MN 55121

Abstract: The predominant programming language for numeric and scientific applications is Fortran-77 and supercomputers are primarily used to run large-scale numeric and scientific applications. Standard C* is not widely used for numerical and scientific programming, yet Standard C provides many desirable linguistic features not present in Fortran-77. Furthermore, the existence of a standard library and preprocessor eliminates the worst portability problems. A comparison of Standard C and Fortran-77 shows several key deficiencies in C that reduce its ability to adequately solve some numerical problems. Some of these problems have already been addressed by the C standard but others remain. Standard C with a few extensions and modifications could be suitable for all numerical applications and could become more popular in supercomputing environments.

Journal: Scientific Programming, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 99-114, 1992