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From: cs326ag@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Loren J. Rittle)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
Subject: Re: Amiga Fortran 77
Message-ID: <1991Feb15.205707.4245@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 15 Feb 91 20:57:07 GMT
References: <5iaDX1w162w@alchemy.tcnet.ithaca.ny.us> <1991Feb15.175522.29335@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <1607@borg.cs.unc.edu>
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Lines: 59

Tim Cullip wrote:
> Where do you find f2c?
It is on an AT&T machine for anonymous ftp. research.att.com I believe.

> Is this a public domain translator or commercial?
Well, I *did* say it was FREE.  What does that mean to you? :-)
It is copyright 198x-1990 Bellcore and AT&T Bell Labs :-).  Gee, who
would have guessed... AT&T making a Fortran to C converter... :-)
Here is the actual Copyright note:
/****************************************************************
Copyright 1990 by AT&T Bell Laboratories and Bellcore.

Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software
and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby
granted, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all
copies and that both that the copyright notice and this
permission notice and warranty disclaimer appear in supporting
documentation, and that the names of AT&T Bell Laboratories or
Bellcore or any of their entities not be used in advertising or
publicity pertaining to distribution of the software without
specific, written prior permission.

AT&T and Bellcore disclaim all warranties with regard to this
software, including all implied warranties of merchantability
and fitness.  In no event shall AT&T or Bellcore be liable for
any special, indirect or consequential damages or any damages
whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data or profits, whether
in an action of contract, negligence or other tortious action,
arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of
this software.
****************************************************************/
Humm, sounds like most software agreements, at least you get
source with this one...

> I will be doing some work with fortran code soon, and would like to be   
> able to convert it to C before I start modifying it for my own use.
You don't want to do that.  The resulting C code looks like
spaghetti.  It is not to be used to make C code a human would
want to look at... (I.e. it looks worst than the Fortran you started
with!)  It is to be used with optimizing C compilers, that have had
more man hours put into them than Fortran compilers (on the same system).
For example, on a VAX running VMS, it would be stupid to use f2c, because
DEC has (had...?) a Fortran compiler God working on the Fortran compiler.
BUT, under most versions of UNIX the C is good, but the Fortran compiler
sucks.  C, the assembly language of the ninties...

From f2c.h, I love it:
/* f2c.h  --  Standard Fortran to C header file */                         
                                                                           
/**  barf  [ba:rf]  2.  "He suggested using FORTRAN, and everybody barfed."
                                                                           
        - From The Shogakukan DICTIONARY OF NEW ENGLISH (Second edition) */

Loren J. Rittle
-- 
``NewTek stated that the Toaster *would not* be made to directly support the
  Mac, at this point Sculley stormed out of the booth...'' -A scene at the
  recent MacExpo.  Gee, you wouldn't think that an Apple Exec would be so
  worried about one little Amiga Device... Loren J. Rittle  l-rittle@uiuc.edu