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standardsfortran

Why the Fortran language standard does not standardize built-in collections such as list, map, and so forth?

Summarization:
Because Fortran is so good at numberical/scientific analyses, and not intended to be a general-purpose language.

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The Java languange has a rich set of built-in collections. The most famous third-party collections are also from reliable Apache foundations and Google corporation (just to name a few).

The Delphi language (dialect) also has a handful set of built-in collections. There are also notational third-party collections such as DIContainers, DeHL, and so forth.

I am wondering why the Fortran language standard does not standarize built-in collections such as list, map, and so forth? I mean, although the standard Fortran 77 does not support pointer, some of its extensions and the successor such as Fortran 90 already have the pointer type?

Solution

  • Fortran's focus has always been high performance numerical computing. Remember that Fortran first appeared in 1957 and so carries a lot of historical baggage.

    There has been lots of development to the Fortran language over the years, but those that have been developing it have concentrated on functionality that enables high performance numerical computing.

    Fundamentally Fortran is not intended to be a general purpose programming language with the breadth of applications of, say, C++.