Re: "Visual" Fortran?

From: Andrew McLaren (amclar_at_optusnet.n0$p@m.com.au)
Date: 04/10/04 

Date: 10 Apr 2004 00:33:50 GMT

Robert Baer <robertbaer@earthlink.net> wrote in news:40766196.A595DEF2
@earthlink.net:

> Is there such a beastie as an inexpensive "visual" Fortran compiler
> (for WinDoz)?
> I am working on a routine that eventually will need to be "ported"
> into WinDoz: need to be ablr to control screen resolution on the fly,
> use a mouse, and have pop-up text read/write boxes.

If you what a cheap/free FORTRAN compiler for Windows, it's pretty hard
(IMHO) to beat the Watcom Compiler:

            http://www.openwatcom.org/

This is reasonably compliant, reliable, mature and it produces Win32
binaries.

There are a few additonal considerations ...

If you are doing "real" work and not just playing around (not that
there's anything wrong with playing around) then your money will be well-
spent by buying a commercial compiler.

If you want to write User Interface modules for Windows, then using
FORTRAN is likely to be a very poor choice.

FORTRAN is a brillinat langauge; and what it does well, it does very well
indeed, better than most other languages. But it was never intended to be
good language for GUI work.

Fortunately, Windows development does *not* oblige you to use the same
language and tools for User Interface as for background or middle-tier
services. If you're targeting an inhouse or small user base, you can use
Visual Basic 6.0 to do teh GUI from end, and compile all your FORTRAN
stuff into DLLs. You just load and call the DLLs from your VB front end.

If you're targetting a mass-market user base and you want to use Win32,
then your GUI front-end should probably be done using Visual C++.

If you are targeting Windows .Net Platform, you can use VB.Net, C#, C++
for .Net or whatever. Creating GUI front ends is much easier, more
reliable and gives much better performance in .Net than teh older
Win32/VB6.0 world. But the same principle applies: write your GUI in a
language that provides a rich set of GUI facilities. Do your number-
crunching in a langauge that does number-crunching well. Th ebeauty of
the .Net platform is that combining modules written in many different
langauges is very easy and very reliable. So do your number crunching in
FORTRAN (eg Lahet FIRTRAN .Net), your front end GUI in VB.Net, and
migrate across your Java code using C# or J#.

If you need to taget multiple platorms (you said you'll *eventualy* move
teh code to Windows) then you could also consider using one of the cross-
platform GUI Builder tools. That way you can get an absolutley consistent
GUI appearance on Unix, Windows, Linux and VMS (for example). But even
there' you'd want to look at using an appropriate langauge for teh GUI
stuff and leave the FORTRAN for the number-crinching. If you keep your
FORTRAN focused like this it will end up being much, much easier to port
across platforms.

Hope it helps
Andrew

Relevant Pages

  • Re: "Visual" Fortran?
    ... > If you what a cheap/free FORTRAN compiler for Windows, ... > to beat the Watcom Compiler: ... > FORTRAN is likely to be a very poor choice. ... > Visual Basic 6.0 to do teh GUI from end, ...
    (comp.lang.fortran)
  • Re: "Free" GUI Design?!?
    ... If your company is not willing to pay for a fortran gui tool like interacter ... windows only or crossplatofrm. ... Your company will probably have a copy of Microsoft visual studio dot net ...
    (comp.lang.fortran)
  • Re: Fortran77 & GUI
    ... > make it talk to the Fortran side. ... > inventing a command language for your Fortran. ... > Now the problem is to keep this thing in sync with the GUI. ... > existence of that file in its event loop. ...
    (comp.lang.fortran)
  • Re: Help with Developing a GUI for Fortran program
    ... From your description of the problem, and the fact that cost seems to be paramount, I'd recommend splitting this into two parts: ... Develop a fortran program to solve 15-30 simultaneous Ordinary ... This probably won't be enough in the long run, but it will allow you to concentrate on the mathematical part of the program without worrying about GUI programming. ... As others have said, if you want a real good look-and-feel without a LOT of work, you'll either have to pay for something like Winteracter or GINO on top of your Fortran compiler, or you'll have to write the GUI in a different language. ...
    (comp.lang.fortran)
  • Re: Help with Developing a GUI for Fortran program
    ... I'd recommend splitting this into two parts: ... Develop a fortran program to solve 15-30 simultaneous Ordinary ... This probably won't be enough in the long run, but it will allow you to concentrate on the mathematical part of the program without worrying about GUI programming. ... As others have said, if you want a real good look-and-feel without a LOT of work, you'll either have to pay for something like Winteracter or GINO on top of your Fortran compiler, or you'll have to write the GUI in a different language. ...
    (comp.lang.fortran)