Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!cbmvax!rutgers!mcnc!gatech!hao!oddjob!gargoyle!ihnp4!cbosgd!mandrill!hal!ncoast!btb
From: btb@ncoast.UUCP (Brad Banko)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Absoft Fortran...
Message-ID: <7146@ncoast.UUCP>
Date: 30 Jan 88 15:20:11 GMT
References: <8801232137.AA06104@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Reply-To: btb@ncoast.UUCP (Brad Banko)
Organization: Cleveland Public Access UN*X, Cleveland, Oh
Lines: 40

about fortran on the ST...
	i got some info from absoft that was a little more informative
about its availability on the ST, but the main point is that absoft fortran
supports the ST much the same way that absoft fortran works with the 
macintosh (i used absoft fortran on a mac back in 1984.)... absoft supplies
one single hook into the operating system calls through which all gem
stuff passes, etc.  absoft fortran on the mac was a very decent system,
and having the inside mac docs available (at the time) and the relatively
friendly (compared to GEM) mac toolbox, making toolbox calls wasn't too
painful, but on the st (i have mark williams C) i think that it is much
more difficult to access GEM in this way.
	my one complaint about the info from absoft is that they charge
a nominal fee ($100/yr) for a license (?) to distribute their runtime
library with the applications that you develop.
	another fortran that looks somewhat more practical (to me) is 
made by PECAN software in Brooklyn New York... they supply a turtlegraphics
library for simple graphics applications AND they make their fortran
with turtlegraphics available for a wide variety of machines including
ibm pc's, pdp's, amiga's, etc.  (actually, it sounds almost too good to
be true, and all of this i've taken only from their literature (which looks
very professional).)  this should mean that one could develop applications
using their turtlegraphics on an ST, and then be able to very easily
port the application to other machines just by recompiling it on the 
target system with their compiler for that system.  even microsoft doesn't
supply a decent graphics library for their languages (except the new
graphics primitives in msc 5.0). pecan's phone number is:
(718)-851-3100.  they look like an american extension of an english
software company.

			brad banko (btb@ncoast.uucp)


-- 
			Brad Banko
			Columbus, Ohio
			(formerly ...!decvax!cwruecmp!ncoast!btb)
			btb%ncoast@mandrill.cwru.edu

"The only thing we have to fear on this planet is man."
			-- Carl Jung, 1875-1961