Re: Need Help: compiling old Fortran program

Richard Maine wrote:
Förster vom Silberwald <chain_lube@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


(Scheme world is even more
dependent on specific compilers than Fortran).


It is quite possible to write Fortran code that does not depend on
specific compilers. Some of us here have done that for multiple decades.
The language does not have such dependence. Some users do. Some of us
here put quite a lot of work into trying to educate people about the
benefits of coding portably. In the end, it has very little to do with
languages, and a lot to do with users. Some languages do more than
others to facilitate or hinder portable coding, but that has never been
the real determining factor.

I think the key factor is that the vast majority of code written in the world today in any high-level compiled language absolutely requires non-portable dependences for various reasons, be it nonexistence or exhorbitant cost of portable 3rd party libraries for control of processes, threads, synchroniczation, the requirement to deal with specialized hardware or I/O. I write maximally portable code whenever that's possible (with the one exception that I like the MS base#number style representation which is easily string changed if needed). Unfortunately, only about 0.5 percent of my code can be truely portable. It all must have a GUI user interface or nobody would use it. I use GINO for that and for interactive graphics and graphics presentation (excel isn't very portable, but I use it sometimes). But even then, I have to use only a subset of GINO for wider portability because the Windows versions are far more capable (feature rich) than the unix versions.




--

Gary Scott
mailto:garylscott@sbcglobal dot net

Fortran Library: http://www.fortranlib.com

Support the Original G95 Project: http://www.g95.org
-OR-
Support the GNU GFortran Project: http://gcc.gnu.org/fortran/index.html

If you want to do the impossible, don't hire an expert because he knows it can't be done.

-- Henry Ford
.

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