(j3.2006) A loss for Fortran

[Clune, Thomas L. GSFC-6101]

I just learned at a telecon that the European Center for Medium-scale Weather Forecasting (ECMWF), _the_ premier weather forecasting center in the world, has started using C++ for their code architecture.   The bulk of the code will remain in Fortran for the foreseeable future, and those layers can/will remain at F90.       But the root decomposition into classes and responsibilities will be in C++3   The new layer is called OOPS if you want to google more.

The primary reasons for the switch to C++ was the lack of generic programming in Fortran.   Immaturity of F2003 implementations was also a concern at the time.  (Decisions were made many years back.  I only learned about them today.)

- Tom