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From: C.R.Ritson@newcastle.ac.uk (C.R. Ritson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.encore
Subject: Re: Extended parallel fortran
Message-ID: <1991Apr19.085914.17866@newcastle.ac.uk>
Date: 19 Apr 91 08:59:14 GMT
References: <1991Apr16.084210.5882@newcastle.ac.uk> <9104172356.9408@goanna.cs.rmit.oz.au>
Sender: news@newcastle.ac.uk
Organization: University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, NE1 7RU
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Following on from my comments about epf and a few problems:

ejd@GOANNA.CS.RMIT.OZ.AU writes:

>Welcome to the club. If you have an Encore Multimax then your software
>has problems, and Encore ARE reluctant to address them. Some of the SPR's
>here date back to 1989. 

>Try and get a response on any software related problem. For example try and
>find out what the latest release of parallel fortran is. I have been waiting
>six months to get an answer to that one.

We have epf release 01.00.r001, and I have been told that that IS the latest
release. How many other compilers have you heard of that are bug free when
they are first released?

I asked encore about their plans for a new release, and got the following:

    From: jlundy@encore.com
    Date: Mon, 15 Apr 91 10:31:20 EDT
    Message-Id: <21190.9104151431@samson.encore.com>
    To: C.R.Ritson@uk.ac.newcastle
    Subject: EPF update for 4.3
    
    Chris,
    
    Currently there are no plans to send out an update for EPF under 4.3.
    I have been in touch with development on this issue, and will see what
    can be done.  I realize the importance of this release to your users.
    Perhaps you should speak to your salesperson and press him on the matter,
    so that he too will put some heat on engineering.

To be fair, encore have been helpful with other problems, and we like their
hardware. They seem to have a blind spot with the quality of their compilers
though.

Chris Ritson <C.R.Ritson@newcastle.ac.uk>
EMAIL: C.R.Ritson@newcastle.ac.uk       Chris Ritson,
PHONE: +44 91 222 8175                  Computing Laboratory,
FAX  : +44 91 222 8232                  University of Newcastle upon Tyne,
TELEX: uk+53654-UNINEW_G                UK, NE1 7RU