Paul E Condon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news: [...] > > I'm using the Intel Fortran Compiler (IFC). Its version 7 runs on Debian > > without any problem whatsoever, although Intel doesn't support Debian. But, > > last year Intel released a total rewrite of the compiler, version 8, with > > which my Fortran programs don't work at all [...] > > If your programs work with version 7, why do you feel a need to > migrate to version 8? Well maybe because version 7 will become > unavailable soon (?).
For a couple of reasons. One is that Intel doesn't want to fix bugs in version 7. For example, I discovered a problem in version 7 and reported it to Intel. They aknowledged that it is indeed a problem, but they say they won't fix it because version 8 doesn't have the problem. They strongly urged me to migrate to version 8. I suspect that they wish they hear nothing about version 7 and want to pull out as soon as possible. Another reason is that I'm not sure if you can get a copy of version 7 for free any more. When I installed version 7, I didn't think it will go away so that I didn't store the package. Now, what if my machine crashes and I need to install the compiler again? > Would migrating to the GNU fortran compiler be > more or less work than migrating to intel version 8? I haven't used the GNU Fortran 95, but I'm 98% sure that it's almost unusable at this stage. Since I've had *enough* unpleasantness with new compilers, I'm very reluctant to give the GNU compiler a try at this stage. For example, I had to report a couple of internal compiler errors for the then new Sun Fortran 95 compiler. I again reported a few internal compiler errors for the 2nd version of Sun F95 compiler, and it emitted obviously wrong code in certain cases if you switch on the optimizer. Then the initial releases of the 3rd version of the same compiler gave me a few internal compiler errors. I think the Sun compiler at last reached a mature stage at the later releases of the 3rd version. I had very similar experience with another vendor, too. Also, I heard that the optimizer for the GNU F95 compiler is almost nothing at this stage. I recently found one of the programs I use runs six times faster with -O3 than without on an SGI machine (I'm not using automatic parallization, so the speedup is a genuine improvement due to the optimizer). I mean, the optimizer is really important for the type of computations I'm doing. Speed comparisons by other people between the GNU Fortran 95 and the Intel compiler show similar difference in performance. > (Or migrating to C/C++?) That's out of question! :) For numerical computation, Fortran 95 is "better" than C++. (I have plenty of experience in C++ programming.) Sure I greatly miss C++'s objects and templates and other goodies. But codes for numerical computation can be much more "easily" written in Fortran 95. That's the most important point for a non-proffessional programmer like me. > If you were to migrate to GNU, you would be safe from the need > to ever migrate again. You just have to keep a safe copy of the > source. Yes. I'm waiting for the day when the GNU Fortran 95 becomes as mature as the GNU C compiler. But, then the most commercial compilers will have been supporting Fortran 2003, and I will want to use some of the F2003's features. In this area, open source software lags far behind, sadly. Cheers, Ryo -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
