Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!comp.vuw.ac.nz!windy!srwmspw
From: SRWMSPW@windy.dsir.govt.nz
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: The worst compiler in the whole wide world
Message-ID: <16521@windy.dsir.govt.nz>
Date: 5 Jul 90 13:02:44 GMT
References: <16430@windy.dsir.govt.nz> <2330.26922b0b@csc.anu.oz>
Organization: DSIR, Wellington, New Zealand
Lines: 31

In article <2330.26922b0b@csc.anu.oz>, axt654@csc.anu.oz writes:
> In article <16430@windy.dsir.govt.nz>, SRWMSPW@windy.dsir.govt.nz writes:
>> 
>> 	Whats the worst fortran compiler in the whole wide world?
>> 
>> 	ANSWER: THE DEC F77 ULTRIX RISC COMPILER
>> 
>> 	In 20 years of scientific computing i have experienced some 
>> bad ones (IBM H extended springs to mind) but never never anything this bad.
>> 
>> Does anybody know if later versions (we seem to be stuck with 1.0) solve
>> any of the many problems.
> 
> 
> So what's wrong with it?
> I'm using it on a DECStation 3100 and it works fine, some minor bugs
> but nothing major.
Where to begin?
	Try using namelists to read in common block variables
	Try using -O2 or -O3 
	     .
             .
             .
I would say 50 % of the programs I have tried to compile have failed in 
some way due to compiler bugs. These problems were all due to compiler bugs
not the use of non standard fortran.
For example compiling some routines from the harwell library failed
becuase the compiler appeared to forget what IF meant.
Compiling each routine separately worked fine.