Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!ncar!gatech!gitpyr!loligo!mccalpin
From: mccalpin@loligo (John McCalpin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Fortran compiler
Message-ID: <7685@pyr.gatech.EDU>
Date: 22 Mar 89 14:48:44 GMT
Sender: news@pyr.gatech.EDU
Reply-To: mccalpin@loligo.cc.fsu.edu (John McCalpin)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Supercomputer Computations Research Institute
Lines: 37

We recently had our NeXT presentation here and are very excited 
about the machine.  We do, however, have one very large reservation.
The NeXT reps said that the only Fortran compiler available now
is from Absoft.  Well, we have lots of experience with Absoft Fortran
on our Macintosh's, and we are not at all thrilled with the prospect
of dealing with it on another machine - expecially one fast enough
to encourage us to port large codes.

Some questions:
(1) Will the Absoft Fortran to GNU C interface be simple enough to
	be usable?  If it requires any special declarations or
	re-ordering of the argument lists, then it is probably not
	usable for us.  LOTS of PD software exists that expects
	fortran and C to interface as in BSD UNIX, and I don't want
	to have to re-write it....
(2) Absoft does have the very nice advantage that they are working
	on providing support for Fortran-88 array notation.  Does
	anyone know if the NeXT version supports this? The ad I 
	saw said the Mac II version with F88 support would be availble
	in the first quarter of this year.
(3) Is there any word on the progress of the GNU fortran compiler?
	When this is finished, it will interface very easily with
	GNU C (and the debugger), and should produce very good code.
(4) Are there any rumours about faster floating-point options
	for the NeXT?  The 68882 is not fast enough for serious
	work.  The NeXT rep hinted that something might be in
	the works at NeXT, but could not be more specific.

I think it is great that NeXT wants to produce a machine useful
for everybody at the university - engineers and philosophers alike -
but the scientific/engineering applications are going to require
a robust Fortran system and better floating-point performance than
the current box provides.
----------------------   John D. McCalpin   ------------------------
Dept of Oceanography & Supercomputer Computations Research Institute
mccalpin@masig1.ocean.fsu.edu		mccalpin@nu.cs.fsu.edu
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