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From: garrett@udel.EDU (Joel Garrett)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: Microsoft Fortran 4.0 bugs
Message-ID: <309@louie.udel.EDU>
Date: Thu, 2-Jul-87 14:37:51 EDT
Article-I.D.: louie.309
Posted: Thu Jul  2 14:37:51 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 4-Jul-87 06:43:53 EDT
References: <285@inuxf.UUCP>
Organization: University of Delaware
Lines: 28
Summary: Microsoft Fortran 4.0 bugs...


We have been using the MS 4.0 compiler for development work here at
the Center for Composite Materials for a little over two months.  Most
of the problems we've had were with the compiler itself (ie the FL command
and not the code it produces).  The compiler seems to be very intolerant of
memory-resident software, which can be a real drag when you've gotten used
to using things like Chris Dunford's CED (command-line editor) and Arbor-
Soft's SEARCH (PATH-type command for non exe files).  We've also had a few
problems with being able to read and write binary files.  The binary files
read/write ok, but the machine hangs when a stop statement is executed.

There are also some 'annoyances' that I've run into while using the Codeview
debugger with the compiler (besides lack of speed in compiling/linking :-).
The real problem is that if you have something like a divide by zero or
something like that in your program, the fortran runtime library will trap
the error and halt execution, which wipes out the ability to check variables
and do a traceback check.  All you see on the screen is a message to the effect
that execution terminated NORMALLY (!)

4.0 is a big improvement for us over 3.3 since we can now port more of our
stuff from the VAX, but these little annoyances all add up to almost be a
real bother.

					Joel Garrett
					Research Associate
					Center for Composite Materials
					University of Delaware
					(garrett@louie.udel.edu)