EVERHART%ARISIA.decnet@crdgw1.ge.com (09/02/89)
Phil - (my comp.sys.amiga feed is messed but I got your note off a BBS...) Absoft Fortran 2.3 for Amiga is reasonably good and seems to produce adequate code. I found the limitation of 1024 bytes for direct access records a bit weird, and if you use OPEN to open a CON: window you'll need to REWIND the unit before switching from read to write. Other than that, which I found not too oppressive, I found no serious problems with it. The source debugger is nice, but be SURE and put the stuff on ram: if you've got include files! It seems to sequentially search source code for the material, and zillions of opens of include files on hard disk, or, worse, floppy, will drive you nuts REAL fast. In ram: it isn't too bad. You have full F77 compatibility; be aware unit 9 is normal for console though. Also there's a fairly extensive Amiga support front end if you need it; I used very little of it. So far AnalytiCalc, Rim, and DeskTop Calendar all ported pretty easily. Most of the problems were VAX extensions and little-endian specific stuff that I had in the originals. (On PDP11 and VAX you can sometimes get away with mixing single byte character and integer datatypes without explicit ICHAR and CHAR functions, and you can usually get away with having a subroutine think you're calling with an Integer*2 where the variable is Integer*4 in the caller. The 68000 big-endian byte ordering made hash out of that. RIM went through almost untouched, and I've found reverse conversions of several other long problems trivial...mostly just changing console unit numbers or OPEN statements... Also syntax of INCLUDEs varies a little. Absoft Fortran 2.2a was a REAL pain and had serious bugs. The 2.3 release fixed them. Note: I've found it easiest to compile my entire sources as one file; your mileage may vary if you compile lots of stuff separately and rely on the linker more heavily. RIM was ported on a 3.5MB A1000, to give an idea of the size. It's pretty reasonable at compile speed too...up to 5000 lines/minute if I recall correctly, running out of ram:; half that off hard disk with old file system. Since Absoft came out with 2.3 well over a year ago, maybe more like 2, I should think you'd never see 2.2 these days. I don't know if they have a later one or not. I complained about the behavior of opens with con: and got a lengthy and unbelieveable spiel of the general nature "we can't avoid it" (in spite of which the 2.2a compiler and runtime did NOT have the problem). They also gave me the workaround, though, so I got by anyhow. If you use unit 9 (or *) the problem doesn't occur. Glenn Everhart Everhart%Arisia.decnet@crd.ge.com
phil@ingr.com (Phil Johnson) (09/06/89)
In article <23055@louie.udel.EDU> EVERHART%ARISIA.decnet@crdgw1.ge.com writes: >Absoft Fortran 2.3 for Amiga is reasonably good and seems to produce >adequate code. I found the limitation of 1024 bytes for direct access >records a bit weird, and if you use OPEN to open a CON: window >you'll need to REWIND the unit before switching from read to >write. Other than that, which I found not too oppressive, I >found no serious problems with it. The source debugger is nice, but >be SURE and put the stuff on ram: if you've got include files! It >seems to sequentially search source code for the material, and >zillions of opens of include files on hard disk, or, worse, floppy, >will drive you nuts REAL fast. In ram: it isn't too bad. > You have full F77 compatibility; be aware unit 9 is normal >for console though. Also there's a fairly extensive Amiga support >front end if you need it; I used very little of it. So far >AnalytiCalc, Rim, and DeskTop Calendar all ported pretty >easily. Most of the problems were VAX extensions and little-endian -- indepth review deleted -- Thanks for the info Glenn. For those who might not know Glenn Everhart, he is the DECUS (Digital Equipment Corp. User's Group) VAX librarian (I believe that is the title). Glenn is responsible for the DECUS Amiga tape and is the author of RIM, a relational deatabase; AnalytiCalc, A three-dimensional spreadsheet. Both of these packages are written in FORTRAN and contain what I consider a very SUBSTANTIAL amount of code (I don't have my old RIM or AnalytiCalc sources handy, but can recall an impression of several inches thick). I have used both of these packages on a number of DEC platforms over the years and have recently begun to run AnalytiCal on the Amiga. I know there are others with experience using FORTRAN on the Amiga and I appreciate all comments and information. Thanks again Glenn for the review. -- Philip E. Johnson UUCP: usenet!ingr!b3!sys_7a!phil MY words, VOICE: (205) 772-2497 MY opinion!
djs4@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Daniel J Sabroe) (03/09/90)
I have a friend who is looking for a Fortran compiler for the Amiga. I'm sure that there must be a few, but I haven't been able to find even one. Can anybody help? Copious Gratitute. . . Dan. Dan Sabroe djs4@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu If you don't want your flag to flap, make it out of some rigid material that won't flex under moderate pressures corresponding [to] the vortices. An added benefit of such a flag, if made of a non-flammable material, is that it may preclude the United States from altering its Constitution. John Berryhill
dedina@cup.portal.com (Michael J Dedina) (03/10/90)
I hear that ABSoft AC/Fortran is a pretty good compiler. Haven't used it myself. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- -dedina@cup.portal.com