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What Language Do YOU Speak?

© Adam Hughes

When it comes right down to it, computing of any sort boils down to applications. Computer applications, of course, come in many flavors and sizes, from a complete operating system like Windows to a simple home-grown program to add up your grocery bill. And while it's probably pretty obvious that all applications are developed through the use of some computer programming language, it's probably not as clear that the class of program to be written often dictates which language will be used. Every genre of computer applications has a core group of languages which serve it best, and scientific computing is certainly no exception to this rule. As with most issues in scientific computing the choice of a programming language often comes down to form versus performance.

Historically, most scientific applications have been written in fortran, usually fortran 77 (f77). Scientists generally view this language as the best for producing stream-lined, computationally efficient computer code. However, as simulation programs have become increasingly complicated, fortran's dominance has begun to be usurped by the popular C and C++ languages. This is due mainly to the fact the C and C++ offer organizational functionalities that f77 can't compete with. Basically, C and C++ allow the programmer to group variables and routines into structures or objects that modularize the code, making it easier to understand and modify. Also, expert code developers can produce C and C++ programs which function very efficiently, often rivaling fortran. In addition to these languages, the newer fortran 90 is gaining in popularity among the scientific community for it's ability to combine organizational details with the basic format of traditional fortran coding.

While the languages discussed above are the ones most prevalent in the workhorse, number-crunching portion of scientific code, they generally do not satisfy the modern computer user's thirst for a flashy and easy-to-use graphical user interface (GUI). As is the case in many corners of the computer industry, a pass through the lab or office of scientific code developers will invariably lead to the revelation that Java plays a large role in the total program package. Beyond this, many applications now have some sort of web interface, and so rely heavily on html or xml. In fact, many scientific groups have begun to develop their own standardized style sheets for use in xml documents.

As scientific applications become increasingly complicated to handle the important simulation problems of the future, it is inevitable that programmers will continue to search out languages which more closely fit their specific computing goals. In the meantime, it's interesting to take a look at the state of the art as it stands now. In upcoming articles, we'll examine

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