(j3.2006) (SC22WG5.4210) [ukfortran] RE: 43 Fortran compilers

[Keith Bierman]

Ah, Athena FORTRAN. I recall that...

Interestingly, a key part of the Voyager code derived from the estimation
library which I'd taken over, was ported to the VAX (and 50 other systems
over the course of a few years). We routinely outperformed (speed and
accuracy) the  older version ... but the rule was "don't change flight
software during a mission" so things evolved separately.

I may even have an Athena FORTRAN manual somewhere. I certainly have some of
the standard Univac documents from that JPL era. The JPL versions had better
(funnier) examples.


Keith Bierman
khbkhb at gmail.com
kbiermank AIM
303 997 2749


On Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 1:57 PM, Loren P Meissner <lpmeissner at msn.com> wrote:

> Wasn't PFORT a Stu Feldman creation?
>
> Loren P Meissner
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: j3-bounces at j3-fortran.org [mailto:j3-bounces at j3-fortran.org] On
> Behalf
> Of Van Snyder
> Sent: Tuesday, March 02, 2010 12:50 PM
> To: fortran standards email list for J3
> Subject: Re: (j3.2006) (SC22WG5.4210) [ukfortran] RE: 43 Fortran compilers
>
>
> On Tue, 2010-03-02 at 11:43 -0800, Keith Bierman wrote:
> > Of course, there are people who aren't trying to write portable code.
> > They often live to regret it ;>
>
> In the early 1970's, when I first joined the computational mathematics
> group
> at JPL, we urged the Voyager project not to use every cool nonstandard
> feature of the Univac Fortran compiler or the even more coll Athena Fortran
> compiler -- and they had as many as any other of the era.
> We urged them to run their code through PFORT, a Fortran 66 portability
> checker from Bell Labs.  They ignored us.  Their codes were trapped on
> Univac 1100/2200 architecture because they couldn't get funding to convert
> it.  Their ClearPath 2200 went out the door about two years ago, more than
> 30 years after the Voyager launch and more than 35 years after we warned
> about portability.
>
>
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