[paperwork]

Can you describe a bit more about what is going on in the project? The file you linked is over 2.5k lines of c++ code, and that is just the “setup” file. As you say, this is supposed to be a statistical model, I expected this to be R, Python or one of the standard statistical packages.

Why is there so much c++ code?

[fsh]

It's a Monte-Carlo simulation, not a statistical model. These are usually written in C++ for performance reasons.

[dandelion_lover]

Or Fortran.

[Zenst]

Oh gosh yes, the amount of `just works` Fortran in science is one of those things akin to COBOL in business. I just know some people are thinking 10 years - ha, be some instances of 40 and possible 50 years for some. Heck, the sad part is many will have computer systems older than 10 years just as it links to this bit of kit and the RS232 just works with the DOS software fine as and the updated version had issues when they last tried. That's a common theme with specialist kit attached to a computer for control - medical as well has that.

[klyrs]

I know two fresh PhDs from two different schools whose favorite language is fortran. I think it's rather different from cobol in that way -- yes, the old stuff still works, but newer code cuts down on the boilerplate and is much more readable. And yeah, the ability to link to 50 year-old battle-tested code is quite a feature.

[Mvandenbergh]

Large chunks of this particular code was in fact originally written in Fortran and then machine translated into C++.

[recursivecaveat]

It is essentially a detailed simulation of viral spread, not just a programmed distribution or anything. It's all in C++ because it's pretty performance-critical.

[disgruntledphd2]

Because much of this code was written in the 80's, I suspect. In general, there's a bunch of really old scientific codebases in particular disciplines because people have been working on these problems for a looooonnngg time.

[roel_v]

Who says anything about statistical models?