Dec 232017
Status report and information about the Free Software Foundation’s new GNU Fortran compiler. | |||
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File Name | File Size | Zip Size | Zip Type |
GNU-F77.TXT | 6074 | 2626 | deflated |
Download File GNUF772C.ZIP Here
Contents of the GNU-F77.TXT file
|> How far is the development of the GNU Fortran compiler?
|> Is there a change to get a Fortran compiler for linux
|> within the next year.
|>
|> Thanks in advance
|> Haefele Georg
|> Department of Geography
|> University of Vienna
For information about the progress of the GNU F77 compiler, use
finger -l [email protected]
or finger -l [email protected]
As of Dec 2, 1992 this query returned:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[gnu.ai.mit.edu]
GNU Fortran alpha testers acct (fortran)
Home: /home/gd2/fortran
Shell: /usr/local/gnubin/bash
Mail forwarded to burley.
GNU Fortran alpha testers acct (fortran) is not presently logged in.
Last seen at apple-gunkies.gnu.ai.mit.edu on Mon Nov 30 10:43:04 1992
Plan:
GNU Fortran (g77) is in private alpha test (as of September 26, 1992). The
latest release is:
G77-A001P014 (92/11/30 11:21) -- the front end
ss-921128-P001 (92/12/01 04:41) -- the back end
Bugs I know about and am working on:
8-bit CHAR/ICHAR involving negative integers
command-line options not being handled in all cases (g77 just ignores the
"languages-specific" ones, so I need to add code for those)
crash when using -O with certain COMPLEX constructs (back end bug that
won't be addressed for a few weeks at least)
Other g77-related email addresses:
[email protected]
Send email here to contact the author and/or current maintainer of GNU
Fortran at the FSF, if you don't already know who that is.
[email protected]
The GNU Fortran Mailing List (moderated). Status info is occasionally
posted to this list regarding the alpha test, plans or questions about
g77 and Fortran in general, and so on.
[email protected]
Send email to this address to get added to the above mailing list.
[email protected]
Send email to this address to get information on the FSF and Project GNU.
[email protected]
Send email to this address to get information on the League for
Programming Freedom (LPF), a political organization that is trying to
make sure that projects like GNU Fortran aren't shut down now or in the
future because of increasing legal barriers to the free flow of
information (the essential component of all software) in the U.S.A. and
elsewhere.
--------
WHAT IS GNU FORTRAN? (last updated 92/11/20)
GNU Fortran is the Fortran development system for Project GNU. GNU
means "GNU's Not UNIX(tm)" and is the primary project currently being worked
on by the Free Software Foundation (FSF), a non-profit organization
committed to the creation of a large body of useful, free, source-code-
available software. GNU is intended as a replacement, wholesale and/or
in pieces, of a complete UNIX system. (UNIX is a trademark of AT&T.)
GNU Fortran, also called g77, consists of a compiler, run-time libraries,
debugger support, and documentation. g77 supports ANSI FORTRAN 77
conformance, plus popular extensions to Fortran including some ANSI/ISO
Fortran 90 features.
The g77 compiler is a combination of a "front end" that translates
Fortran source programs and a "back end" that uses the results of the
translation to make an object or executable file that performs the
actions specified by the source programs when run. The back end is
the same back end used by GNU C, C++, and Objective-C, which have their
own front ends to translate their respective languages. Other front ends
for Pascal and ADA are in progress.
The run-time libraries for g77 are currently whatever is compatible with
the libraries used by the f2c program, a public-domain Fortran-to-C
converter distributed by AT&T/Bellcore. f2c comes with its own libraries
(written in C) for systems that don't already have compatible libraries.
By using the same libraries, procedures compiled by g77 and f2c can be
freely mixed to create an executable program. However, g77 is unable to
offer some popular extensions that aren't supported by f2c-compatible
libraries, and the interface to the libraries isn't necessarily a
high-performance design. Thus, use of the f2c library interface might
be a short-term thing.
Debugger support for g77 consists of compiler code to output the appropriate
debugging information when -g is specified at compile time plus code in
the GNU Debugger, GDB, to support evaluation of Fortran expressions.
The private alpha test is called "private" because the source code making
up the test is not being publicly released. Only those testers and developers
accepted by the author of GNU Fortran should have a copy of g77 currently.
It is called "alpha" because it is the first phase of testing (alpha is the
first letter of the Greek alphabet). There are around 30 or so alpha
testers in locations all over the U.S.A., including testers in Norway,
Brazil, the U.K., Canada, France, Denmark, and, yes, even New Jersey!
As alpha test winds down (as necessary features are added and the bug-rate
gets lower), plans will be made to go to beta test (the second phase of
testing), which will be a public release.
The primary focus of the alpha test is to test the g77 front end, since that
has most of the new code. The secondary focus of the alpha test is to test
the integration between the front end and the back end. Currently, this is
where most of the bugs seem to be. The tertiary focus is the quality of
code generated by the GNU back end.
There are no schedules regarding future events such as when beta test will
happen, when documentation will be written, and so on. The GNU Fortran
effort so far is entirely voluntary, and delays might happen due to the
need to earn income, so the best way to assure rapid delivery of a high-
quality free Fortran system is to offer donations or other forms of funding
to the author and/or the FSF.
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December 23, 2017
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