Is Fortran better than Python for teaching basics of numerical linear algebra?

Re:Is Fortran better than Python for teaching basics of nume... by int_19h on Tuesday September 23, 2025 @11:16PM (#45355903)

If students struggle with the use of Greek letters as symbols, it'll be difficult for them to deal with lots of math and physics where this is the standard notation. Intuitively it feels that the best thing that the language can do here is to enable notation that is the closest to the underlying math.

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Re:Is Fortran better than Python for teaching basics of nume... by hulitu on Wednesday September 24, 2025 @02:30AM (#45356989)

> If students struggle with the use of Greek letters as symbols

After using Character map or other "user friendly" methods to enter Greek letters as symbols on a computer, i would say, yes, people struggle with the use of Greek letters. Unless, of course, one has a Greek keyboard.

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Re:Is Fortran better than Python for teaching basics of nume... by syockit on Monday September 29, 2025 @08:17PM (#45420490)

I always install WinCompose specifically for this. Then a Greek letter is as simple as pressing Compose with *, followed by the related Roman letter. Though I still struggle to remember which key maps to which for the letters with no real 1-to-1 mapping (like theta).

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