Write Fortran in Ruby

ruby-talk
1

Try to write the following Fortran 77 program (note the
6 space indentation) in Ruby so that it looks as close
to the Fortran as possible without extending Ruby:

      program ii
      integer i
      do i=0,10
         print*,i
         if (i.gt.5) goto 1
      enddo
1 print*,i*i
      end

Here's the Python candidate to date:

for i in range(10):
    #begin
    print i
    if i>5: break
    #end
print i*i

···

-----------------------
Better Python candidate...

     from operator import gt
     class goto1: pass
     try:
      for i in range(0,10):
       print i
       if gt(i,5): raise goto1
      #endfor
     except goto1: pass
     finally:
      print i*i
     #end

But why is anyone trying to convince a fortran programmer to use a slow,
dynamic language? This reminds me: Too many of the language debates
concentrate on static vs. dynamic typing. The real issue is type
declarations. They waste time during proto-typing. But there is another way
to eliminate those pesky declarations: type-inferencing.

People are spending a lot of time trying to "optimize" Ruby, Python, and
Perl. They're all hitting the same problem: dynamic typing. It's
insurmountable. I was really hoping that Ruby could be THE language, but
last night, browsing the Great Language Shootout page, I noticed a problem:
Ruby is SLOW! Even compared to Python.

Boo and Ocaml are examples of fast, agile languages, and if more companies
would adopt them, I'd switch in a heartbeat.

2

Try to write the following Fortran 77 program (note the
6 space indentation) in Ruby so that it looks as close
to the Fortran as possible without extending Ruby:

     program ii
     integer i
     do i=0,10
        print*,i
        if (i.gt.5) goto 1
     enddo
1 print*,i*i
     end

Here's the Python candidate to date:

for i in range(10):
   #begin
   print i
   if i>5: break
   #end
print i*i

-----------------------
Better Python candidate...

    from operator import gt
    class goto1: pass
    try:
     for i in range(0,10):
      print i
      if gt(i,5): raise goto1
     #endfor
    except goto1: pass
    finally:
     print i*i
    #end

But why is anyone trying to convince a fortran programmer to use a slow,
dynamic language? This reminds me: Too many of the language debates
concentrate on static vs. dynamic typing. The real issue is type
declarations. They waste time during proto-typing. But there is another way
to eliminate those pesky declarations: type-inferencing.

People are spending a lot of time trying to "optimize" Ruby, Python, and
Perl. They're all hitting the same problem: dynamic typing. It's
insurmountable. I was really hoping that Ruby could be THE language, but
last night, browsing the Great Language Shootout page, I noticed a problem:
Ruby is SLOW! Even compared to Python.

i've never had a problem with this and am routinely process files ranging from
40mb to 3gb - one only has to use c extensions.

why do you see dynamic typing as a contributor to slowdown?

Boo and Ocaml are examples of fast, agile languages, and if more companies
would adopt them, I'd switch in a heartbeat.

ocaml is very good - but it's a massive paradigm shift for most people's
thought train... most real world problems are imperitive.

-a

···

On Fri, 3 Mar 2006, Christopher Dunn wrote:

--
judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
- h.h. the 14th dali lama