From Nicholas Lee <N.J.Lee@statslab.cam.ac.uk>  Tue Apr 13 00:02:21 1999
From: Nicholas Lee <N.J.Lee@statslab.cam.ac.uk> (Nicholas Lee)
Date: Tue, 13 Apr 1999 00:02:21 +0100 (BST)
Subject: Fortran vs C, easing using Fortran
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.96.990413083608.275D-100000@g.ihaka.slip.auckland.ac.nz>
Message-ID: <Pine.HPP.3.96.990412231928.25145A-100000@tiger.statslab.cam.ac.uk>


On Tue, 13 Apr 1999, Ross Ihaka wrote:

> On Mon, 12 Apr 1999, Paul Gilbert wrote:

> > Omega, are to work in a "Java like" way across platforms, I think both fortran
> > and C are problems. Is that not correct?
> 
> IMHO: Java is (currently) too slow for production numerical work and I
> suspect that this will remain the case for some time.  Java gets around
> this by providing a way of calling Fortran and C.

The addage I've seen seen concerning Java currently is, "Write Once, Test
Everywhere."  Quite a part from this, the language itself isn't completely
stable and (free) optimised compilers always lag language modifications.


 
> I once heard an informed opinion that it would hard to get a language like
> S to perform within a factor of 10 of optimized C or Fortran.  Most of the
> time we can live with a factor of 10, but sometimes ...

I thought that R compiler you where talking about, was a way to go? ;)

> > I realize there is a performance issue, but I don't think it is as serious as it
> > was in old versions of Splus. I am not sure how slow my time series library
> > would be without the fortran. It used to be intolerable, but I have the
> > impression it may not be too bad now.

The difference performance of computers and amounts of avaiable memory,
would make retrospective benchmarks trickly. 

 

Nicholas

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Fortran vs C, easing using Fortran
Nicholas Lee