Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.csd.uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!ingr!phil
From: phil@ingr.com (Phil Johnson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Amiga Fortran
Message-ID: <6359@ingr.com>
Date: 6 Sep 89 15:21:39 GMT
References: <23055@louie.udel.EDU>
Reply-To: phil@ingr.UUCP (Phil Johnson)
Organization: Intergraph Corp. Huntsville, Al
Lines: 41

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!