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by physguy1123 4071 days ago
There is still a lot of Fortran being written, but a lot of it is on legacy projects (scientific codes have a habit of lasting a long time). While there are some cool things like coarray Fortran and some groups require that everything be done in Fortran, C++ is a favorite for new projects afaik.
1 comments
chrisseaton 4071 days ago
Why do scientists call programs 'codes'? It's something that seems to be particularly common in HPC, and quite rare elsewhere.
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ohquu 4071 days ago
It's easier and more precise to say something like "run the quantum Monte Carlo code" than "run the quantum Monte Carlo model" or "run the quantum Monte Carlo software."

A quantum Monte Carlo code will of course include a model, but I think people don't want to call it "software" because it's so research-grade and janky. "Program" seems better, but I think that implies that it's a static thing (not in a constant state of development).

The plural "codes" is used because usually a research team has historically implemented a bunch of models into disparate codebases.

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