Scientific Programming

Introduction

Programming is often mentioned in an applied context. It seems that only mobile applications, Internet systems and special effects for movies are created with its help. But initially programming was intended for solving scientific problems. In addition, programming itself is a science, which will be useful to learn about for those who have decided to link a career with computer development.

What is Scientific Programming?

A scientific programming language is a programming language that is designed and optimized for the use of mathematical formulas and matrices. Such languages are characterized not only by the presence of libraries that perform mathematical or scientific functions, but also by the syntax of the language itself. For example, neither C++ nor Python have built-in matrix types or functions for matrix arithmetic operations (addition, multiplication, etc.); instead, this functionality is available through standard libraries. Scientific programming languages include ALGOL, PL, Fortran, J, Julia, Maple, MATLAB and R. Now we will consider some of them…

ALGOL

Algol is the name of a number of programming languages used in the compilation of programs for solving scientific and technical problems on a computer. The features of the Algol language have become typical for most imperative languages created later than it.

It was in Algol that the idea of a program appeared not as a free sequence of commands, but as a block structure consisting of clearly described and separated parts. The main block of the Algol program is the main program itself. It contains its executable part enclosed in a block bounded by a pair of keywords begin and end, as well as descriptions of subroutines. Each subroutine is a miniature program that has its own data described inside it.

PL

PL is a programming language developed in 1964, designed for scientific, engineering and business—oriented computing. It contains such a wide set of syntactic constructions and built-in functions that probably there is not a single compiler that supports all the features provided in the language specification. Supports recursion and structural programming, has been widely used in data processing.

Unlike other programming languages, PL has a free syntax: keywords can be identifiers depending on the context. This makes it possible to develop the language, replenishing it with new keywords that would not conflict with identifiers in old programs. The language provides very generalized operators with many syntax options.

MATLAB

MATLAB is a package of application programs for solving technical computing problems. The package is used by more than a million engineers and scientists, it works on most modern operating systems, including Linux, macOS, Solaris and Windows.

MATLAB is a high-level interpreted programming language that includes matrix-based data structures, a wide range of functions, an integrated development environment, object-oriented capabilities and interfaces to programs written in other programming languages.

Programs written in MATLAB come in two types — functions and scripts. Functions have input and output arguments, as well as their own workspace for storing intermediate calculation results and variables. Scripts also use a common workspace.

Conclusion

Scientific programming is at the heart of any modern global research. All advanced technologies — from quantum computers to space programs — would be impossible without specialists in the field of scientific programming, able to provide scientists with a reliable and accurate tool for making discoveries.