COMPARISON OF C-90 FOR OBJECT-ORIENTED SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMMING(+ AND FORTRAN)

C++ and Fortran 90 are compared as object-oriented languages for use i n scientific computing, C++ is a full-featured, object-oriented langua ge that provides support for inheritance and polymorphism. Fortran 90 can mimic some object-oriented features through combinations of its TY PE and MODULE syntax elements, but it lacks inheritance and thus does not permit code reuse to the same extent as C++. Each language has oth er useful features unrelated to object-oriented programming, but the a dditional features of Fortran 90 can be included in C++ through the de velopment of class libraries. in contrast, including the additional fe atures of C++ in Fortran 90 would require further development of the F ortran 90 syntax. A critical feature missing in Fortran 90 is the temp late, which allows C++ programmers to build portable, reusable code an d to dramatically improve the efficiency of the evaluation of complex expressions involving user-defined data types. (C) 1997 Elsevier Scien ce B.V.