g95 as a system fortran compiler?

[Steve Kargl]

On Sun, Dec 20, 2009 at 11:46:19AM +0000, Anton Shterenlikht wrote:
> 
> I understand that gfortran is not an ideal choice for
> many reasons, not least that it doesn't build on ia64.

Do you have any details to support this claim (other than
the fact that you can't get gcc to build on ia64)?
Benchmarks seem to offer a different viewpoint.

http://www.polyhedron.com/compare0html

> I think g95 could be a better choice for the following
> reasons:
> 
> 1. very few dependencies, easy to maintain:
> 
> Port:   g95-0.92.20090624
> Path:   /usr/ports/lang/g95
> Info:   Fortran 95 compiler from g95.org
> Maint:  gahr at FreeBSD.org
> B-deps: gettext-0.17_1 gmake-3.81_3 libiconv-1.13.1
> R-deps: 
> WWW:    http://www.g95.org/

You left out the dependency that it uses gcc-4.0.3 as it's
base gcc.

> 2. builds fine on amd64, i386, ia64, sparc64 (and alpha, but this
> is no longer relevant). Also builds fine on linux ppc, mips, arm
> (haven't got fbsd stats for these archs). 

Install the g95 port and be done with it.

> 3. actively developed, including co-arrays, a fortran 2008 feature

g95 has a single developer who has not been heard from since June as far
as patching g95 is concerned.  Your statement that g95 is 'actively 
developed' suggests that you believe that gfortran isn't actively 
developed.  235 patches have been committed to gfortran and its 
runtime library since July 1, 2009.  Note, these aren't all bug fixes
suggesting gfortran is low quality.  Many are new features such as
OOP or changes to the gcc infrastructure (ie., use of MPC for complex
types, autoparallelization, and vectorization).

The co-arrays feature is a closed source shareware product.  http://www.g95.biz/

As for F2003 and F2008, gfortran has implemented many more of the newer
features including some of the OOP features in Fortran.

http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/Fortran2003Status
http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/Fortran2008Status

> 4. proven track record of successful integration with
> numerical libraries, scientific software, etc.

?

If it's Fortran, gfortran will compile it.  Not sure that this last
point supports inclusion of g95 over any other Fortran compiler.

> I think inclusion/exclusion of system fortran is best
> controlled via /etc/src.conf, for those who have no use
> for it.
> 
> Any comments?

Install the g95 port and move on in life.  Fortran was removed
from the base system when GCC deprecated g77 in the gcc-4.x 
series and FreeBSD moved to the newer compiler.  Fortran
should not return to base system.

PS:  Guess who is an active gfortran developer?

-- 
Steve