Learning Fortran: Compilers, Debugging & More

[Sievers]

Hi guys

Im quite proficient when it comes to Matlab, and am now scheduled to learn Fortran 90/95 for a PhD-project (OS: winXP/win7) and I want to ease the transition as much as possible. I have been scouring the internet to learn more about what I am faced with and one thing keeps bugging me: While there seem to be plenty of tutorials explaining how the language itself works (I have recently gotten the "Fortran 95/2003 explained" book as well), there seem to be little or no information on how to set everything up to run. Which surprises me as this seems to not just be a simple "Install and use" program. By now I understand that the compiler is the 'engine', into which code must be thrown, for an eventual output. So i guess my question is simply:

• In which program should I then write my code? (Cygwin is a name that keeps popping up but I also understand that there are several alternatives?)
• Which compiler should I use (g95, gfortran, etc? All documentation and opinions I find are from 2007 and back, so I guess much have changed)
• I read somewhere that a debugging environment would be needed as well? Which, and where can I learn more?
• Is the installation process simply just what I listed above? "Code-editor -> Compiler -> Debugger"?
• Also, apart from the book I already purchased, do you have any valuable suggestions (tutorials, other books, etc.) as how to best go around learning Fortran.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Mark44]

No one has responded, so I'll put in my 2 cents.

Hi guys

Im quite proficient when it comes to Matlab, and am now scheduled to learn Fortran 90/95 for a PhD-project (OS: winXP/win7) and I want to ease the transition as much as possible. I have been scouring the internet to learn more about what I am faced with and one thing keeps bugging me: While there seem to be plenty of tutorials explaining how the language itself works (I have recently gotten the "Fortran 95/2003 explained" book as well), there seem to be little or no information on how to set everything up to run. Which surprises me as this seems to not just be a simple "Install and use" program. By now I understand that the compiler is the 'engine', into which code must be thrown, for an eventual output.

Right. A Fortran development system is not just a program - it consists of at the least a compiler and linker. The compiler translates your Fortran code to object code, and the linker combines your object code with other code you used, and produces an executable.

So i guess my question is simply:

• In which program should I then write my code? (Cygwin is a name that keeps popping up but I also understand that there are several alternatives?)
• Which compiler should I use (g95, gfortran, etc? All documentation and opinions I find are from 2007 and back, so I guess much have changed)
• I read somewhere that a debugging environment would be needed as well? Which, and where can I learn more?
• Is the installation process simply just what I listed above? "Code-editor -> Compiler -> Debugger"?
• Also, apart from the book I already purchased, do you have any valuable suggestions (tutorials, other books, etc.) as how to best go around learning Fortran.

Thanks in advance!

The code you write is a text file, so anything from Notepad or equivalent on up can be used.
The last Fortran compiler I used was about 15 years ago, and was from Lahey. I don't have any experience with the compilers you listed, so can't make any recommendations.
A debugging environment isn't an absolute requirement, but I wouldn't want to try to write programs without one.

The development process for an application you write (as opposed to installing the development tools) is 1) write code in editor --> 2) compile code --> 3) link code. If the compiler finds errors, you use the information the compiler gives you to go back to step 1. After all semantic errors are fixed, it's possible that you have linker errors, which also need to be fixed.

After you get an executable (no compiler errors or linker errors) it's possible you have errors in logic that cause your application to produce erroneous results. That's where the debugger comes in handy, allowing you to single-step through the code to verify that the appropriate values are being calculated.