Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!spool.mu.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!apple!uokmax!servalan!epmooch!ben From: ben@epmooch.UUCP (Rev. Ben A. Mesander) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer Subject: Re: FORTRAN on the Amiga Message-ID: Date: 1 Mar 91 12:53:46 GMT References: <2412@ria.ccs.uwo.ca> Lines: 29 >In article <2412@ria.ccs.uwo.ca> ptoper@obelix (Andy Nagy) writes: [...] > 2) Does anyone know why a Fortran compiler might produce faster execut- > ables than C (asside from the obvious 'because its better at that > job'). Is it because of the design of the language or the compiler > or ... Bingo! The design of the language makes it quite easy to compile. It doesn't place as many demands on the machine as C does. For example, FORTRAN subprogram arguments are passed by reference, rather than by value. While it makes it somewhat annoying to code recursive routines in FORTRAN, I beleive that this is faster on most machine architectures: Push address of arg on stack call subprogram versus Fetch contents of variable push on stack call subprogram There are others. This is just off the top of my head. >Andy Nagy (ptoper@asterix.gaul.csd.uwo.ca) -- ben@epmooch.UUCP ben%servalan.UUCP@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu {chinet,uokmax}!servalan!epmooch!ben (Ben Mesander)