Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!usc!snorkelwacker!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!fluke!ssc-vax!housen
From: housen@ssc-vax.UUCP (Kevin Housen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Microsoft Fortran for the Mac
Message-ID: <3100@ssc-vax.UUCP>
Date: 4 Jan 90 20:41:47 GMT
References: <2906@dogie.macc.wisc.edu>
Organization: Boeing Aerospace & Electronics, Seattle WA
Lines: 28

In article <2906@dogie.macc.wisc.edu>, elabed@vms.macc.wisc.edu (Hani El-Abed, MIC at MACC) writes:
> 
> This is my personal opinion about MS FORTRAN and the Company They bought
> it from (Absoft)...
> 
> I think these two compiler are pieces of Garb***e...
> 
> I had tons of problems with them...I decided to bite the bullet and
> bought from my own pocket the "Language System Fortan Compiler" that
> runs under the "Macintosh Programmer's Workshop(MPW)"..
> 

It would be helpful if you were more specific (*tons of problems is not
very descriptive).  Just to add another opinion, I found the Absoft
compiler to be reasonable.  I used to use Fortran a lot, but now only 
occasionally.  I too ported a finite element program to the Mac from
a Vax and found little trouble (using the Absoft compiler).  There are
some Vax extensions that Absoft hasn't implemented, but at least in my case
they were minor.  My major dislike with Absoft fortran is the debugger.
Its very slow when you get over several thousand lines of code.  My major
dislike of the Lang. Systems compiler was that you have to run it under
MPW.  If you happen to like MPW, their complier may be the way to go.
By the way, the current version of Absoft Fortran is 2.4.  Perhaps the
current version might not have some of the problems mentioned in regard
to 2.2.

Kevin Housen
.