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.an...@statisticalengineering.com phone: 561-352-9699 eFax: 614-455-3265 http://www.StatisticalEngineering.com -----Original Message----- From: r-help-boun...@r-project.org [mailto:r-help-boun...@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. ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
