[comp.lang.fortran] Status of f77 on 4.3-tahoe

jgd@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (John G Dobnick) (04/03/89)

[This has been crossposted to comp.bugs.4bsd, comp.lang.fortran,
 comp.unix.wizards, and comp.sys.tahoe -- as this seems to hit the
 likely interested parties.   Followups are directed to comp.bugs.4bsd.]

This is not so much a bug report as a request for information on the
status of f77 in the 4.3-tahoe release *on the tahoe*.

Background:

Some of our users have concluded that the f77 compiler for the tahoe
machine has serious deficiencies.  Features are missing (NAMELIST for
instance), and code generation is *very* unstable (bad code is generated.)

There are two f77 source trees -- one for the tahoe, and one for the VAX.
The tahoe version appears, in general, to be about three years older than
the VAX version.  There are *large* differences between these versions --
differences which exceed those due to mere architectural variations.

As I understand matters, the 4.3-tahoe release is now the base for bsd
development, i.e., all development work is done on the tahoe platform, and
such work is then ported to the *other* platforms.

F77 appears to be the exception to this.  I conclude that f77 development
work occurs on a VAX, in the VAX version of f77 only, and has not been
integrated into the official (tahoe) version of f77.  As a result, tahoe
users have a severely deficient compiler.

[The f77 *library* does appear up-to-date, and there is only *one* of them!]

Questions:

Is my summary of the situation correct?  If so, why has the "official"
tahoe development leg been neglected?  [I assume it's because the person
working on f77 has a VAX and not a tahoe at his disposal.] (As an aside
here, I wonder why there *are* two development legs -- the tahoe and VAX
appear significantly similar in architecture to share the majority of the
compiler's first pass code.  Later passes are really "borrowed" from other
programs like the C compiler;  since there are already working machine
specific versions of these they are not germane to the discussion.)

In an attempt to avoid "reinventing the wheel", has anyone upgraded (done
a code merge on) the tahoe f77 compiler to include the many fixes in the
VAX version?  My boss has told me to "Do it!", but if somebody else already
has ...
I'm not a compiler person, but am willing to give it a try  -- *especially*
since the boss told me to.  :-)

Am I beating a dead horse? :-(

-- 
John G Dobnick
Computing Services Division @ University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
INTERNET: jgd@csd4.milw.wisc.edu
UUCP: <backbone>!uwvax!uwmcsd1!jgd

"Knowing how things work is the basis for appreciation,
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