DDSCAT 7.2: Open-Source Fortran Code Simulates Light Scattering by Any Shape
Discrete Dipole Approximation Code Ddscat 7.2 (2012)
DDSCAT 7.2 is a free, open-source Fortran-90 package that uses the discrete dipole approximation to compute how electromagnetic waves scatter and absorb in targets of arbitrary geometry and complex refractive index. It handles isolated particles, periodic arrays, inhomogeneous and anisotropic materials, and supports MPI, OpenMP, and Intel MKL. The 95-page user guide covers cross sections, Mueller matrices, and near-field calculations for size parameters up to 25.
DDSCAT 7.2 allows accurate calculations of electromagnetic scattering from targets with size parameters 2*pi*aeff/lambda <25 provided the refractive index m is not large compared to unity (|m-1| <2).
- phuff
It always boggles my mind that these core math libraries are still written in Fortran (same goes for some famous core matrix math libraries that still kick around). I have always presumed that it was because nobody knows Fortran well enough anymore to successfully translate them to something more modern.
Are we at the point yet where we might be able to replace some of these legacy Fortran libs with more modern, legible, performant Rust or C/C++?