[RFC] Removal of Fortran from the base system

[Steve Kargl]

On Tue, May 30, 2006 at 01:46:10PM -0600, Lyndon Nerenberg wrote:
> >I'm saddened to see FORTRAN ripped out of the base system - and I'd
> >personally do the import work if it weren't for the the extra
> >dependencies GNU FORTRAN 9x requires.
> >
> >But 'ports/lang/gfortran' is an abomination.
> 
> I don't know about that, but it's certainly a lot of bloat.
> 
> This is why I alluded before to an f2c based replacement.
>
> The reasons against inclusion of GCC 4.1.1 Fortran involves changing (and 
> increased) library dependencies.  An f2c based f77 replacement would 
> eliminate that problem while preserving functionality that has been part 
> of BSD for over two decades.  Given the rate of change of f2c and it's 
> associated libraries (i.e. practically nil), the maintenance overhead 
> after the initial import to the base should be very small (even when the 
> underlying C compiler changes). The majority of the import work would be 
> writing a replacement f77 driver command.
> 

See the history of Fortran in the base system.  Please let f2c die.
There have been substantial advances in the Fortran language over
the past 3 decades.  In fact, there has been 3 revision to the ISO
Standard.  People, who use Fortran, want speed (and correct answers),
and f2c certainly isn't going to win any speed contest.

PS: ports/lang/f77.

-- 
Steve