Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!borland.com!sjc
From: sjc@borland.com (Steve Correll)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: DEC System 5000 f77 bug
Message-ID: <1991Jun3.183031.28499@borland.com>
Date: 3 Jun 91 18:30:31 GMT
References: <1694@usage.csd.unsw.oz.au>
Organization: Borland International
Lines: 21

In article <1694@usage.csd.unsw.oz.au> michaelg@hydra.maths.unsw.oz.au (Michael Gerberg) writes:
>We have discovered that the -r8 option (single to double precision conversion)
>of the f77 compiler (Version 2.0) on our DEC Stations 5000 running ULTRIX
>(Version 4.1) is unusable. The trouble is that certain specific intrinsic
>functions are not converted to appropriate equivalents....
>...Unfortunately, DEC people here in Sydney
>spent a long time trying to persuade us that the bug does not exist...

I believe that -r8 is meant to facilitate porting of programs from
supercomputer-class machines where the default size of integers, reals, and
logicals is 60-64 bits rather than the 32 bits which is common on workstations.
To emulate those machines faithfully, the compiler must also change the meaning
of the specific intrinsics.

I first encountered "-r8" in the Sun Microsystems compilers. The documentation
states clearly that it changes the meaning of specific intrinsics, and
experiment shows that the documentation is correct.

Perhaps you can get the attention of the DEC people by telling them that you've
discovered that Sun SPARCstations would work better than DECstations in your
applications. :-)