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173 sats \ 25 replies \ @south_korea_ln 28 Nov \ parent \ on: Early object oriented programming languages devs
I'm still stuck with some Fortran 66 and 77 code snippets here and there. But I rewrote most of the legacy code I use into Fortran 90 syntax. Yet, I rarely think I'll be able to leverage it in industry. Also, no OOP in my codes...
Is Fortran still pretty standard in physics? I heard of some Econ profs who used to use Fortran, but Matlab became the default for a while and now I'm not sure but I think most of the young'uns use Python
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Some of my younger colleagues are allergic to Fortran, yet they're always happy when I implement their Hamiltonians in my Fortran code. It's just so much faster. For production calculations, it is still pretty much the standard. But for everything post-processing or quick stuff, we use Python in my field. Some colleagues use Matlab too, but it became less common when numpy, scipy, etc matured in the last 10-20 years. You can get very far with Python, if you know how to use the proper libraries (that are actually written in Fortran, C and C++), but many of my colleagues don't bother learning about proper use, and thus their codes are pretty slow.
As a side note, ChatGPT is pretty good at explaining/solving bugs in Fortran, as it has likely been trained on all the old Fortran documentation. It saves me time. However, it is not good at implementing ideas that I have. Probably not enough Fortran code training data on Github, etc. Python is a much better fit for ChatGPT companionship.
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From what I can tell, Python is what they are starting the new programmers out in. I had to learn it to script for networking and cybersecurity uses. Couldn’t use the old languages any more!
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The OOP helps out for reuse or multiple uses in one program, in my case. I do most of my scripting in BASH, C-shell, python or on MicroSloth’s new fandangle of a terminal power command line.
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I've gone back to shell scripting thanks to ChatGPT. At some point, I stopped bothering due to its annoying syntax and I would switch to a Python script to prepare input files and launch external codes.
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Oh … I haven’t gotten around to using ChatGPT, yet. Don’t really know if I want to or not, due to the training and who is doing the training. I think the results might be somewhat biased and not quite correct. Python would be a good one for input files. I am much more familiar with shell scripting than otherwise.
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For me, ChatGPT is quite useful. Because I learned how to code before it arrived. However, with some of my younger colleagues, I believe ChatGPT is a curse. They blindly rely on what ChatGPT tells them and are unable to assess if what is given to them is correct or not. And when I ask them how they implemented something but they don't know because they don't understand what the code does, it's clear ChatGPT is a net-negative for them.
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Yes, the programmer should know how his program works, if he is ever to figure out how to fix problems with it. Just letting ChatGPT do all the work can be done by anyone familiar with making prompts for ChatGPT. What good is that?
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I'm really concerned for this generation of students who are over reliant on AI.
But on the other hand maybe that's what older generations thought of calculators.
Every generations learns to do the tasks it needs using the tools it has available I suppose
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Time will tell. Can't fight it, anyhow, best is to embrace it and make the best of it.
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Yes, but they still have to be able to figure out how to fix the problems they create using those tools.
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I guess that is what many people also thought of computers, spreadsheets and accounting software. I can tell you from direct experience that accounting software using accountants sometimes have a hell of a time finding their errors. They just are not sure of their debits and credits and which goes where. Then there is the transposed number problem that is difficult to find when using software. Perhaps every profession has the same problems.
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Which tool do your students use? ChatGPT?
I'm impressed your students are 'over reliant' on AI lol
I think I am under reliant on AI
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They try to use ChatGPT to help them with coding assignments
It's plain as day because they use commands and code patterns that I never taught them but still work (usually)
Half the time they didn't change the name of the variables either so their code doesn't run 🙄
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I see
ChatGPT has replaced Stack Overflow
Yep, that looks like what students have done since time immemorial. If they use each other’s work, they don’t bother changing anything but the name on the paper!