Random thoughts related to this topic:

+1 for ForTran.  Learn to love it.

The SGI box is the Octane, not the Octave.

Don't start this project in ruby, because when your program takes 3
months to run you'll just rewrite it in ForTran anyway...

Repeat after me: "I will not use Visual Basic.  I will NOT use Visual Basic."

Don't force an Object Oriented design onto your numerical analysis
problem unless there is good reason too do so.  You'll shoot yourself
in the foot before you even get started.

Java does not run only in a web browser, and its speed is certainly
not related to running in a browser.  But it's not the right tool for
this job either.

Less code != faster code.

Mathematica would probably work too, if you can afford it or your Uni
has it available.


Jason