Is Fortran the best first language for a scientist?

Question

I'm a meteorologist and I have dabbled in programming and in Fortran, but its been several years. I want to write a multiple linear regression model to forecast long-term temperature anomalies based on dozens of predictors and I am thinking the best way to accomplish this is to learn how to program. Fortran is used widely in the field, so I am leaning toward this language, which also seems easier to learn. Any recommendations for or against this and any books that will serve as a good starting point?

Answer 1

See my complete answer to the same question you asked in the other category.

Using the current standard also implies you will have colleagues familiar with and able to help you debug your code.

Another word of advice: COMMENT your code lavishly everywhere, there is nothing worse that returning to your own program after a few months and not remembering what in blazes it was doing and unknowingly messing it up trying to "upgrade" it. This should actually apply to all languages, but it seems to me those "this_is_my_variable_that_does_so" variable name that some language allow are abused and are seen by some programmer as an excuse to dispense with proper commenting ("Hey, it says so in the name of the variable, I do not have to add comment on top of it!") which is a grave mistake.

Answer 2

Fortran is an old faithful language that has been used in Science, and meteorology for at least 40 years. And it has complex numbers included.

Fortran is a bit "square" (that was fortran 77): Fortran 90 seems to be different.

For  quick programs (say less than 600 lines) try Python.  It has complex numbers included, and a decimal library.

Actually you should learn python for data reformatting and small tasks that too long to program in fortran.