我不时地读到Fortran在繁重的计算中比C更快。这是真的吗?我必须承认我几乎不懂Fortran,但是到目前为止我看到的Fortran代码并没有显示出该语言具有C语言所不具备的特性。

如果是真的,请告诉我原因。请不要告诉我什么语言或库适合处理数字,我不打算写一个应用程序或库来做这个,我只是好奇。


当前回答

Fortran有更好的I/O例程,例如隐含的do工具提供了C标准库无法比拟的灵活性。

Fortran编译器直接处理更复杂的 涉及到语法,而且这样的语法不能轻易简化 参数传递形式,C不能有效地实现它。

其他回答

I think the key point in favor of Fortran is that it is a language slightly more suited for expressing vector- and array-based math. The pointer analysis issue pointed out above is real in practice, since portable code cannot really assume that you can tell a compiler something. There is ALWAYS an advantage to expression computaitons in a manner closer to how the domain looks. C does not really have arrays at all, if you look closely, just something that kind of behaves like it. Fortran has real arrawys. Which makes it easier to compile for certain types of algorithms especially for parallel machines.

在运行时系统和调用约定等方面,C语言和现代的Fortran非常相似,很难看出有什么不同。注意,这里的C实际上是基础C: c++是一个完全不同的问题,具有非常不同的性能特征。

Fortran速度更快有几个原因。然而,它们的重要性是如此无关紧要,或者可以通过任何方式解决,所以它不应该是重要的。现在使用Fortran的主要原因是维护或扩展遗留应用程序。

PURE and ELEMENTAL keywords on functions. These are functions that have no side effects. This allows optimizations in certain cases where the compiler knows the same function will be called with the same values. Note: GCC implements "pure" as an extension to the language. Other compilers may as well. Inter-module analysis can also perform this optimization but it is difficult. standard set of functions that deal with arrays, not individual elements. Stuff like sin(), log(), sqrt() take arrays instead of scalars. This makes it easier to optimize the routine. Auto-vectorization gives the same benefits in most cases if these functions are inline or builtins Builtin complex type. In theory this could allow the compiler to reorder or eliminate certain instructions in certain cases, but likely you'd see the same benefit with the struct { double re; double im; }; idiom used in C. It makes for faster development though as operators work on complex types in Fortran.

简单快捷: 这两种语言同样快,但Fortran更简单。 到底哪个更快取决于算法,但无论如何,速度上没有很大的差别。这是我2015年在德国斯图加德高性能计算中心的Fortran研讨会上所学到的。我同时使用Fortran和C语言,我也有同样的观点。

解释:

C语言是用来编写操作系统的。因此,它拥有编写高性能代码所需的更多自由。一般来说,这是没有问题的,但是如果一个人不仔细编程,他很容易减慢代码的速度。

Fortran是为科学编程而设计的。因此,它支持编写语法方面的快速代码,因为这是Fortran的主要目的。与公众的看法相反,Fortran并不是一种过时的编程语言。它的最新标准是2010年,新的编译器定期发布,因为大多数高性能代码都是用Fortran编写的。Fortran进一步支持现代功能,如编译器指令(在C语言中)。

例子: 我们想给一个大的结构体作为函数的输入参数(fortran: suboutine)。在函数中,参数不会被改变。

C同时支持引用调用和值调用,这是一个非常方便的特性。在我们的例子中,程序员可能会意外地使用按值调用。这大大降低了速度,因为需要首先将结构体复制到内存中。

Fortran只使用引用调用,这迫使程序员手动复制结构,如果他真的想要按值调用操作。在我们的例子中,通过引用调用,fortran将自动和C版本一样快。

There is another item where Fortran is different than C - and potentially faster. Fortran has better optimization rules than C. In Fortran, the evaluation order of an expressions is not defined, which allows the compiler to optimize it - if one wants to force a certain order, one has to use parentheses. In C the order is much stricter, but with "-fast" options, they are more relaxed and "(...)" are also ignored. I think Fortran has a way which lies nicely in the middle. (Well, IEEE makes the live more difficult as certain evaluation-order changes require that no overflows occur, which either has to be ignored or hampers the evaluation).

另一个更聪明的规则领域是复数。这不仅是因为直到c99才有了它们,而且Fortran中管理它们的规则更好;由于gfortran的Fortran库部分是用C编写的,但实现了Fortran语义,GCC获得了这个选项(也可以用于“普通”C程序):

-fcx-fortran-rules 复杂的乘法和除法遵循Fortran规则。范围缩减是作为复杂除法的一部分进行的,但是没有检查复杂乘法或除法的结果是否是“NaN + I*NaN”,试图在这种情况下挽救这种情况。

The alias rules mentioned above is another bonus and also - at least in principle - the whole-array operations, which if taken properly into account by the optimizer of the compiler, can lead faster code. On the contra side are that certain operation take more time, e.g. if one does an assignment to an allocatable array, there are lots of checks necessary (reallocate? [Fortran 2003 feature], has the array strides, etc.), which make the simple operation more complex behind the scenes - and thus slower, but makes the language more powerful. On the other hand, the array operations with flexible bounds and strides makes it easier to write code - and the compiler is usually better optimizing code than a user.

总的来说,我认为C和Fortran的速度差不多;选择应该更多的是你更喜欢哪种语言,或者是使用Fortran的全数组操作及其更好的可移植性更有用,还是使用C中更好的系统接口和图形用户界面库。

Fortran和C语言在特定目的上并没有哪一种语言比另一种更快。对于每种语言的特定编译器,有些编译器比其他编译器更适合某些任务。

多年来,Fortran编译器一直存在,它可以对你的数字例程施黑魔法,使许多重要的计算变得异常快速。当代的C编译器无法做到这一点。因此,在Fortran中出现了许多伟大的代码库。如果您想要使用这些经过良好测试的、成熟的、出色的库,就需要使用Fortran编译器。

我的非正式观察表明,如今人们用任何古老的语言来编码他们繁重的计算内容,如果这需要一段时间,他们就会在一些廉价的计算集群上找到时间。摩尔定律让我们所有人都成了傻瓜。