Fortran returns to top 20 TIOBE index

[FortranFan]

@certik

Currently Fortran is better in a sense of easier to write and still usually performing (although not always…), but the tooling around it is so bad that it cancels this slight advantage completely for many use cases. However, by fixing the tooling and compilers to ensure Fortran is always the best performing, on any platform and easiest to write and use (dependencies, interactive/non-interactive use, …) — then we are talking. And I think that is doable and my goal.

Excellent points, agree with you completely here.

My other point is that with just a few enhancements (see this thread) to the language standard also, Fortran can verily become feature-complete for scientific and technical computing. And it will pay rich dividends for the next several decades. I truly wish the standard can get things such as Fortran-suitable Generics, Exception Handling, etc. included ASAP.

Then with improved tooling and the ecosystem and standard facilities, Fortran can be at the top as the *lingua franca of scientific and technical computing.