July 5, 2026
Old code, fresh chaos
A Forlorn Hope of Fortran Modernisation
Can this coding dinosaur get a glow-up, or are the comments already writing its eulogy?
TLDR: A new essay argues Fortran still runs critical science software and needs a makeover to attract younger coders. Commenters were split between “just pay people more,” “other languages already do this,” and “don’t break the few weird features that still make Fortran useful.”
One writer made a passionate case that Fortran, one of computing’s oldest languages, still matters because it powers huge science and engineering projects — from weather models to heavy-duty simulations — and is facing a talent crisis as older experts retire and younger programmers run the other way. His big dream? Modernize the language so it feels less like a museum piece and more like something people might actually choose in 2026. But the real fireworks erupted in the comments, where readers treated the proposal like a family dinner argument that got wildly out of hand.
Some commenters basically said, relax, this is a hiring problem, not a language apocalypse. One joked that if companies simply “wave the checkbook,” they’ll get programmers, implying money talks louder than nostalgia. Others were much harsher, flatly rejecting the article’s claim that no other language can match Fortran for massive scientific work. That drew a loud “Huh???” from one reader who said plenty of serious science already happens in C and C++, which are more familiar to modern developers.
Then came the nerd civil war: should Fortran keep its weird old habits because they help scientists think, or must it change to survive? One camp defended its quirks as part of its charm and usefulness. Another declared parts of the proposal dead on arrival, especially the idea of removing low-level features needed to handle binary data. And for extra spice, one commenter mocked the article’s grand talk about Fortran’s “mathematical lineage,” basically calling it romantic fan fiction for an aging codebase.
Key Points
- •The article argues that Fortran remains important for long-lived, large-scale, massively parallel scientific and engineering applications.
- •It states that organizations using Fortran are struggling to replace workers because younger programmers are reluctant to specialize in the language.
- •The author identifies three central issues: Fortran’s importance in scientific parallel computing, a shortage of Fortran programmers, and a lack of actionable industry plans to replenish talent.
- •The intended audience includes Fortran standards maintainers, scientists and engineers using Fortran, and STEM readers interested in parallel processing and scientific programming.
- •The author describes personal experience with FORTRAN 1977 on a DEC VAX-11/780 and later with Fortran 90 on a Cray Y-MP and Cray T3D during graduate research.