[tlug] rewriting a few million lines of Fortran code (was Re: Fortran --> Python (was linux engineer))

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

jep200404@example.com writes:
 > On Thu, 7 Jun 2012 15:57:21 +0900, BALUTA Chris <baluta@example.com> wrote:

 > > So... Who is going to re-write a few million lines of Fortran
 > > code into Python? (And why?!)
 > 
 > Somebody who understands Occam's razor. 

It's unlikely that anybody would *re*-write millions of lines of
FORTRAN code in Python.  It's like the problem my wife is moaning
about: our refrigerator is only 4 years old, but it's a two-door model
and for the last few months one door tends to pop open and remain ajar
when the other is closed.  So she wants to buy a new one (which is
about 40% more electricity-efficient even before accounting for the
open door losses), but she can't justify it based on the numbers.

What's more likely to happen is that somebody *else* is going to have
a problem sufficiently different that merely tweaking the FORTRAN code
is not enough, and they need to *understand* it.  At that point,
writing the driver in Python, with very expressive and (relatively)
efficient techniques like object types, iterables, and comprehensions,
and using highly optimized and robust numerical libraries, makes a lot
of sense.