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1 | | -<!-- |
2 | | -Fortran has been traditionally developed by compiler vendors, |
3 | | -and later also by the standards committee. |
4 | | -It was a mainstream language when computing was a niche, |
5 | | -and became a niche language when computing turned mainstream. |
6 | | -It is the oldest high-level language still in use today, |
7 | | -and thus originates in the pre-internet era. |
8 | | ---> |
9 | | - |
10 | 1 | <section> |
11 | 2 |
|
12 | | -### Why do we need an online Fortran community? |
| 3 | +### Problem and Motivation |
13 | 4 | </section> |
14 | 5 |
|
15 | 6 | <section> |
16 | 7 |
|
17 | | -### Developed by vendors and committees |
18 | | - |
19 | | -* Traditionally, Fortran has been developed by compiler |
20 | | -vendors and standards committees |
21 | | -* Vendors follow the buck (customers) |
22 | | -* Committees follow the vendors |
| 8 | +### Problem and Motivation |
23 | 9 |
|
24 | | -=> Individual developers left behind |
| 10 | +* Fortran lacks modern tooling |
| 11 | +* Poor ecosystem of libraries |
| 12 | +* Fortran users are scattered and disconnected |
| 13 | +* New user adoption is diminishing |
| 14 | +* New Fortran projects are diminishing |
25 | 15 | </section> |
26 | 16 |
|
| 17 | + |
27 | 18 | <section> |
28 | 19 |
|
29 | | -### A niche language |
| 20 | +### Fortran lacks modern tooling |
30 | 21 |
|
31 | | -* Fortran was mainstream when computing was niche |
32 | | -* Niche when computing turned mainstream |
| 22 | +* No comprehensive standard library |
| 23 | +* No go-to build system |
| 24 | +* No package management solution |
| 25 | +* Open source compilers few and far between |
33 | 26 |
|
34 | | -=> Difficult to find other developers and learning resources |
| 27 | +=> Fortran is hard to work with |
35 | 28 | </section> |
36 | 29 |
|
37 | 30 |
|
38 | 31 | <section> |
39 | 32 |
|
40 | | -#### Originated in the pre-internet era |
| 33 | +### Poor general purpose library ecosystem |
41 | 34 |
|
| 35 | +* Fortran originated in the pre-internet era |
42 | 36 | * Before email, websites, or version control |
43 | 37 | * GitHub? Forget about it! |
| 38 | +* Many wheels re-invented but not published |
| 39 | + |
| 40 | +➡ Scarce open source library ecosystem |
| 41 | +</section> |
| 42 | + |
| 43 | + |
| 44 | +<section> |
| 45 | + |
| 46 | +### Fortran users are scattered and disconnected |
| 47 | + |
| 48 | +* Difficult to find other users |
| 49 | +* Conferences and meetups few and far between |
| 50 | +* Feeling alone is not fun |
| 51 | +* It makes you re-invent the wheel |
| 52 | +* It makes you want to give up |
| 53 | +</section> |
| 54 | + |
44 | 55 |
|
45 | | -=> Scarce open source library ecosystem |
| 56 | +<section> |
| 57 | + |
| 58 | +### Fortran also has a PR problem |
| 59 | + |
| 60 | +* Most of society still only knows of FORTRAN |
| 61 | +* Mainframes, punchcards, and UPPERCASE |
| 62 | +* Images deeply engraved into the cultural DNA |
| 63 | +* Fortran is not the village idiot of programming languages, |
| 64 | +yet, it is being treated as such |
| 65 | + |
| 66 | +➡ This is bad. We need to change it. |
| 67 | +</section> |
| 68 | + |
| 69 | + |
| 70 | +<section> |
| 71 | + |
| 72 | +### Our goals for Fortran |
| 73 | + |
| 74 | +* Fortran should be _easy_ to work with |
| 75 | +* Fortran should be _fun_ to work with |
| 76 | +* Working with Fortran should spark joy |
| 77 | +* It should feel like play and not work |
46 | 78 | </section> |
47 | 79 |
|
| 80 | + |
48 | 81 | <section> |
49 | 82 |
|
50 | | -#### Where we are now |
| 83 | +### How do we get there? |
| 84 | + |
| 85 | +We need: |
51 | 86 |
|
52 | | -* No connected and organized community of developers |
53 | | -* No small-to-medium sized projects started in Fortran |
54 | | -* Many applications + few libraries = little code reuse |
55 | | -* New software projects not started in Fortran |
56 | | -despite it being optimal for the task at hand |
| 87 | +* A rich standard library |
| 88 | +* An easy-to-use, fast package manager |
| 89 | +* A cutting-edge open source compiler and interpreter |
| 90 | +* A modern, beautiful website and learning resources |
| 91 | +* A welcoming and inclusive online community |
57 | 92 | </section> |
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