Path: utzoo!yunexus!geac!syntron!jtsv16!uunet!tank!ncar!noao!arizona!mike
From: mike@arizona.edu (Mike Coffin)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: FORTRAN 88
Message-ID: <7540@megaron.arizona.edu>
Date: 25 Oct 88 16:35:41 GMT
Article-I.D.: megaron.7540
References: <5833@vdsvax.steinmetz.ge.com>
Distribution: comp.lang.fortran
Organization: U of Arizona CS Dept, Tucson
Lines: 22

From article <5833@vdsvax.steinmetz.ge.com>, (scott h lamson):
[regarding speed of FORTRAN compilers]
> I have used two Fortran compilers on the CRAY-2, one of which runs
> about ten times longer (cft77 written in Pascal) than the other (cft2
> written in assembler).  I have no problem with cft77's compile times.
> It has supported more fortran-77 features sooner, and produces
> something like 20% faster code.  So within one order of magnitude,
> compile time is, for me, not a concern.  Functionality and optimized
> resultant code is just more important. 

Perhaps you would be more concerned if you weren't compiling on a
Cray-2?  One weakness of the standard (it seems to me) is that it seems
to be designed for extremely powerful machines.  A lot of FORTRAN code runs
on machines several orders of magnitude slower than a CRAY-2.  While the
difference between compilation times of 10 seconds and 100 seconds may
not be enough to worry about, the difference between 2 minutes and 20
minutes --- the same factor of 10 --- is the difference between a
quick stretch and a long coffee break.
-- 
Mike Coffin				mike@arizona.edu
Univ. of Ariz. Dept. of Comp. Sci.	{allegra,cmcl2,ihnp4}!arizona!mike
Tucson, AZ  85721			(602)621-2858