F2PY: a tool for connecting Fortran and Python programs

Abstract

Abstract:In this paper we tackle the problem of connecting low-level Fortran programs to high-level Python programs. The difficulties of mixed language programming between Fortran and C are resolved in an almost compiler and platform independent way. We provide a polished software tool F2PY that can (semi-)automatically build interfaces between the Python and Fortran languages and hence almost completely hide the difficulties from the target user: a research scientist who develops a computer model using a high-performance scripting approach.Keywords: high-performance scripting; Fortran; Python; code generation; F2PY.Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Peterson, P. (2009) Biographical notes: Pearu Peterson is a Senior Researcher in the Laboratory of SystemsBiology at the Institute of Cybernetics at the Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn, Estonia. In 2001 he received his PhD in Natural Sciences from the Tallinn University of Technology for the study on multi-soliton interactions. His research interests include solitons, nonlinear integrable PDEs, water waves, hydrodynamics, scientific computing, heart modelling, and confocal and florescence microscopy. He is co-author to many open-source projects such as SciPy that focus on scientific computing within Python.

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