jec@nesac2.UUCP (John Carter ATLN SADM) (12/06/88)
The subject and keyword lines say it all. Does such a thing exist? I realize that FORTRAN is not a popular as C/Pascal/BASIC and that Borland probably won't produce "TURBO FORTRAN", but that's tha price range of interest to my daughter and a couple of other students at Georgia Tech. They want the option of doing FORTRAN programming exercises on a PC instead of waiting in line for a terminal on campus, but they don't have $$$$ for one of the (expensive) commercial products. (I don't plan to buy one for them - tuition/books/housing/food come ahead of convenience, and standing in line just might teach them a little patience. :-) Thanks, John -- USnail: John Carter, AT&T, 401 W. Peachtree, FLOC 2932-6, Atlanta GA 30308 Video: ...att!nesac2!jec Voice: 404+581-6239 The machine belongs to the company. The opinions are mine.
rogerson@PEDEV.Columbia.NCR.COM (rogerson) (12/07/88)
In article <1357@nesac2.UUCP> jec@nesac2.UUCP (John Carter ATLN SADM) writes: >I realize that FORTRAN is not a popular as C/Pascal/BASIC and that Borland >probably won't produce "TURBO FORTRAN", but that's tha price range of >interest to my daughter and a couple of other students at Georgia Tech. > Microsoft has special Educational Discounts on almost all of its software. Most of the time this discount is almost 50%. Have her check at the Georgia Tech book store for Microsoft Fortran it is about the best one out there and includes the CodeView debugger. I do not know what the list price is so this may still be expensive. What major is she and/or what class is she taking? If it is the intro EE Fortran class, then it is not worth wasting any money over. The assignments are short and easy. If she is a EE I think that the HP Vectra lab in the EE building has Fortran. If none of this works, I may have an old version of Microsoft Fortran I can sale for a low price. Microsoft will allow me to transfer ownership to your daughter and she could upgrade it for the normal user upgrade price. -----Dale Rogerson----(GA Tech Grad '88)
dmt@mtunb.ATT.COM (Dave Tutelman) (12/08/88)
Lahey and P-Systems both make Fortrans in the vicinity of $100. I shopped for "Turbo Fortran" last summer (wound up not buying anything), and that's what the choice came down to. I have no direct experience, but my impressions from the brochure were: - Lahey seems to be a Fortran specialist. They make a number of >$400 products, and have a good rep in this niche. Their "Personal Fortran" is a stripped-down version for under $100. Some limitations; I seem to remember small-model-only, but I'm sure there are others. - P-Systems makes an environment that supports a number of languages, on a semi-interpreted basis (translates to P-code, then interprets). The environment plus one language came to about $100, if I recall. Fortran is one of the supported languages. Pascal is another. By the time I had all my information, I decided I didn't really need Fortran after all. However, if my need for a student Fortran had persisted, I probably would have bought the Lahey product. Hope this helps. +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | Dave Tutelman | | Physical - AT&T Bell Labs - Lincroft, NJ | | Logical - ...att!mtunb!dmt | | Audible - (201) 576 2442 | +---------------------------------------------------------------+
hollombe@ttidca.TTI.COM (The Polymath) (12/09/88)
In article <2304@PEDEV.Columbia.NCR.COM> rogerson@PEDEV.Columbia.NCR.COM () writes: }In article <1357@nesac2.UUCP> jec@nesac2.UUCP (John Carter ATLN SADM) writes: }>I realize that FORTRAN is not a popular as C/Pascal/BASIC and that Borland }>probably won't produce "TURBO FORTRAN", but that's tha price range of }>interest to my daughter and a couple of other students at Georgia Tech. }... check at the Georgia Tech book store for Microsoft Fortran }it is about the best one out there and includes the CodeView }debugger. I do not know what the list price is so this may still }be expensive. Just a caveat: I got a copy of Microsoft's FORTRAN/80 for my Osborne-1 a few years ago. I found it unacceptably buggy. In particular, the printer control codes didn't work as documented, or according to the FORTRAN standard for that matter. That made output formatting difficult and full screen applications nearly impossible. That was long ago on a Z80 based CP/M machine. I've no idea what their current FORTRAN for the PC is like. -- The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe, hollombe@ttidca.tti.com) Illegitimati Nil Citicorp(+)TTI Carborundum 3100 Ocean Park Blvd. (213) 452-9191, x2483 Santa Monica, CA 90405 {csun|philabs|psivax}!ttidca!hollombe
dd@beta.lanl.gov (Dan Davison) (12/11/88)
I would recommend the Lahey Personal Fortran at $99.00 US, which is a hard price to beat for a full fortran compiler. It doesn't do coprocessors and the more advanced 386 instructions, but what do you want for $99.00? I would *strongly* recommend avoiding MicroSloth Fortrash at all costs. Use Turbo C instead. An unbelievably bad compiler, from version 1 to version 4. -- dan davison/theoretical biology/t-10 ms k710/los alamos national laboratory los alamos, nm 875545/dd@lanl.gov (arpa)/dd@lanl.uucp(new)/..cmcl2!lanl!dd 'The true mark of intelligence is an unwillingness to fill in the many gaps in our understanding with a set of irrational beliefs'(Keats,paraphrased)
mcdonald@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu (12/11/88)
>I would *strongly* recommend avoiding MicroSloth Fortrash at all >costs. Use Turbo C instead. An unbelievably bad compiler, from >version 1 to version 4. True for versions 1 through 3.x, a slight exaggeration for 4.0, but 4.1 is really quite nice indeed. They finally got it right. Its no longer to be avoided.
imacbeath@crocus.waterloo.edu (Ian MacBeath, CGC) (12/13/88)
I don't know the cost, but check out WATFOR77 from: WATCOM, 415 Phillip Street, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3X2 (519) 886-3700, Telex 06-955 458, FAX (519) 747-4971 Available for IBM VM/CMS, PC-DOS/MS-DOS, VAX/VMS and maybe some other machines (I'm not sure, I've only used the ones I listed).