trh@ukc.UUCP (06/14/84)
Somebody was asking for info on this but I've lost the address so hope
this may be of general interest.
There is a special issue of Nasti News (Oct 1983) by Pat Gaffney,
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, P.O. Box Y, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830.
He asks the question "Is it feasible to program an IBM PC in Fortran
to do scientific computations?"
His conclusion is that as a result of minimal testing of the Microsoft
FORTRAN compiler, version 3.1 it is possible. But it is only tolerable
with a hard disc and an 8087 coprocessor.
This configuration will allow "fairly modest scientific programming to be
performed relatively easily". The new compiler from Microsoft is " a
significant improvement over the one distributed by IBM", although
it only implements a subset of f77.
Finally "The time periods required for the COMPILE-LINK procedures will
probably necessitate a change of work style for most programmers. I
have found that these periods are sufficiently long to be useful for
eating, drinking and sometimes even thinking !"
Tim Hopkins,
Computing Laboratory,
University of Kent,
Canterbury CT2 7NF
Kent
U.K.
{ trh@ukc.UUCP }