# An interesting Reddit comment

**URL:** <https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/an-interesting-reddit-comment/3844>\
**Category:** Humor\
**Created:** [June 27, 2022, 6:31am UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/an-interesting-reddit-comment/3844 "2022-06-27T06:31:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![fortran4r](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9de0a6/32.png) [@fortran4r](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/fortran4r)\
**Post date:** [June 27, 2022, 6:31am UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/an-interesting-reddit-comment/3844/1 "2022-06-27T06:31:52Z")

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> **[r/CFD - \[February\] Programming languages for CFD](https://www.reddit.com/r/CFD/comments/lbeb5b/february_programming_languages_for_cfd/)**
>
> 41 votes and 74 comments so far on Reddit

I found this interesting comment:

```auto
C++: it sucks, if you like it you're insane, but it's the only viable programming language for modern full featured CFD code. If you write in C++ you're definitely bad at C++, sorry not sorry.

Fortran: cool, keep on keeping on, tell me about your experiences when you grow past 1000 lines

F77: you didn't know F90 is backward compatible?

F90: you didn't know F2003 is backward compatible?

F2003: you knew F2003 exists but you didn't pick a different language? are you insane?

F2008: woowwwww really?

F2018: you exceeded neckbeard, circled around, and won it again.

python: cool, tell me about your experiences when you grow past 5 functions

C: i assume you're not actually writing numerical code, but someone else told you to because a book 40 years ago said to.

java: how are you even here?

matlab: that's really cute that you "do cfd"

rust: lol do you even know what a PDE is

julia: really surprised you're here, i assumed you're only on message boards talking about julia

pythonviabarba: welcome friends, hope you enjoyed copy-pasting, let's do real cfd now

```

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**Author:** ![Carltoffel](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/fortran-lang.discourse.group/carltoffel/32/1680_2.png) [@Carltoffel](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/Carltoffel)\
**Post date:** [June 27, 2022, 8:50am UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/an-interesting-reddit-comment/3844/2 "2022-06-27T08:50:00Z")

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The whole topic has very interesting comments about Fortran in comparison with C++. Most of them say that Fortran is better for the core (in this case number crunching for CFD) but not so good for IO, interfaces and graphics. They argue that number crunching is relatively small in comparison with everything else, and therefore they prefer C++ because it’s still good enough for heavy calculations.

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**Author:** ![Beliavsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba8739/32.png) [@Beliavsky](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/Beliavsky)\
**Post date:** [June 27, 2022, 11:16am UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/an-interesting-reddit-comment/3844/3 "2022-06-27T11:16:55Z")

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> [@Carltoffel](#):
>
> The whole topic has very interesting comments about Fortran in comparison with C++. Most of them say that Fortran is better for the core (in this case number crunching for CFD) but not so good for IO, interfaces and graphics.

How is the I/O in C++ better than that of Fortran, especially now that Fortran has unformatted stream I/O? The entirety of C++ I/O is more complicated to learn, since there is `printf` etc. from `<cstdio>`, `cout` etc. from `<iostream>` (which I think is verbose for formatted output), and most recently [std::format](https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/utility/format/format), which eases the use of `cout` but which many C++ compilers do not yet support. In Fortran there are `write` and `read` with a rich set of parameters and format strings – I/O facilities are more unified.

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**Author:** ![Carltoffel](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/fortran-lang.discourse.group/carltoffel/32/1680_2.png) [@Carltoffel](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/Carltoffel)\
**Post date:** [June 27, 2022, 11:19am UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/an-interesting-reddit-comment/3844/4 "2022-06-27T11:19:20Z")

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This is not my opinion, I cited the comments. This is what the CFD community on Reddit thinks about Fortran and C++.