jefu@pawl.rpi.edu (Jeffrey Putnam) (12/10/89)
I recently posted asking about Fortran compilers for MS DOS. As so
often happens (-: I got only a couple responses, but a fairly large number
of requests for information.
To summarize (no, Im not going to post the whole messages, thats the idea of
a _summary_) :
One person mentioned the WATCOM WATFOR77 compiler. The debugger was said
to be reasonable. There are no graphics in the standard system, but you
can purchase a GKS package.
A couple people mentioned the Lahey compiler(s?). They were generally
praised (but with few specific details) and the respondants
compared them with Microsoft fortran to Microsoft's disfavor. One
respondant said "MS is particularly bad. They try to have too many
features, and they have lousy documentation." Another claimed
"Lahey and Microsoft have the best tool sets."
There was one defender for Microsoft who claimed that Microsoft
Fortran was quite good. This was qualified by the statement
that he does "number crunching almost exclusively", codes
"strictly within the F77 conventions", and keeps subroutines
in separate files so the file size never gets too big.
He went on to praise some of the MS extras, including make, good
diagnostics, and the debugger.
One person offered the following prices :
Lahey Computer Systems Fortran $500-$900 (several different systems?)
Microsoft Fortran $450
Ryan McFarland Fortran $600
SVS Fortran $725
NDP Fortran $600
--
jeff putnam -- I should have been a pair of ragged claws
jefu@pawl.rpi.edu -- Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.
-- Phew! Phinally! PhinisheD!