Groups > comp.lang.python > #197949

Re: Blog: Is Fortran better than Python for teaching the basics of numerical linear algebra?

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From	Thomas Koenig <tkoenig@netcologne.de>
Newsgroups	sci.math, comp.lang.fortran, comp.lang.python
Subject	Re: Blog: Is Fortran better than Python for teaching the basics of numerical linear algebra?
Date	Sun, 6 Sep 2026 19:49:40 -0000 (UTC)
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Cross-posted to 3 groups.

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David Jones <dajhawkxx@nowherel.com> schrieb:
> Thomas Koenig wrote:
>
>> Johann "Myrkraverk" Oskarsson <johann@myrkraverk.invalid> schrieb:
>> 
>> > Best wishes, and happy switching from Python to Fortran 77!
>> 
>> Fortran 77 makes little sense, modern Fortran variants (Fortran
>> 90+) are available with free compilers and offer much more comfort
>> and safety.
>
> Recall that the modern bits of modern Fortran might well lead a student
> to leap to use of MATINV, when MATINV should not be used. Etc..

Not sure what you mean by MATINV, it is not part of Fortran.  Fortran
does have MATMUL (which can usually be mapped to a BLAS routine).

> Students need to think in detail about what the computations in linear
> algebra are doing.

Not only that... numerics in general is a difficult field.
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