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From: khb%chiba@Sun.COM (Keith Bierman - Sun Tactical Engineering)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer,comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: Fortran compiler help (for Mac)
Message-ID: <74172@sun.uucp>
Date: 23 Oct 88 18:32:31 GMT
References: <19352@cs.tcd.ie>
Sender: news@sun.uucp
Reply-To: khb@sun.UUCP (Keith Bierman - Sun Tactical Engineering)
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View
Lines: 36

To the best of my knowledge, these are the fortran products available:

1)	msfortran. This is basically just an old version of Absoft.

2)	absoft. Old versions were sufficiently buggy, and hard to deal
	with that in one of my former incarnations we were forced to
	buy a PC to run the Lahey product. No doubt absoft has
	improved with age. Their newest product is "based on RISC
	technology". How RISC relates to the compiler for a 68020 is
	beyond me.

3)	DCM mactran; I have a copy, but have not exercised it
	intensively. Has provisions to make access to the toolbox
	"easy", but the first code I wrote uncovered a few bugs. Since
	I have a nice workstation at work, I don't "need" to do too
	much fortran at home. DCM provides a "turbopascal" type (i.e.
	integrated editor compiler) environment. With the advent of
	Multifinder (for those with enough memory) this is not a big
	selling point. I prefer the QUED/M editor.

4)	MPW fortran from language systems, or some such (see mactutor
	for particulars). Being compatible with MPW should be a big
	advantage. I have not yet worked with this compiler, but it is
	very new to the market.

None of these are as mature nor as useful as the PC or workstation
products. Sigh. The mac is otherwise a nice standalone machine. 

(* plug for my employer*) any chance you can buy Suns rather than Macs
? :) (* plug off *)

There is a product called FACE-it which is very handy for adding
macfeatures to existing code. Last I heard, it was available for all
EXCEPT the DCM product. Check MacTutor for adverts.
Keith H. Bierman
It's Not My Fault ---- I Voted for Bill & Opus