Re: List of gfortran-ready libraries and packages

[Janne Blomqvist <blomqvist dot janne at gmail dot com>]

On Fri, Oct 1, 2010 at 12:43, FX <fxcoudert@gmail.com> wrote:
> This is a question of general interest more than a gfortran development question, but I'm sure you'll excuse me for this slight off topic mail.
>
> Compiler installation and use of libraries are, for gfortran like for many open source projects, an important part of the barrier to adoption (just see c.l.f and regular questions on this list). Commercial compilers now sell packages including common libraries (BLAS, LAPACK, etc.). As a consequence, I was wondering what we could do to work in that direction. I can think of a few things that would help promote the excellent tool you/we strive to develop:
>
> Â 1. Regarding Windows usage: create a "Libre Fortran for Windows" package (or whatever name), that would include the tools currently distributed (gfortran, gcc, maybe g++, a subset of mingw, pthread and libgomp, ...) and add to that common libraries (blas, lapack, maybe plotting utilities like DISLIN, ...). I am ready to spend some time on that during the next few months; the project would probably start by doing a poll on c.l.f about what software people are interested to see packaged.

I have a feeling many Windows users will instantly disqualify a
package that doesn't include an IDE [*]. Taking an in-depth look at
eclipse/photran has been on my TODO-list for a long time, but from
what I've seen it looks pretty decent (I did use eclipse quite a lot
way back in the past, but beyond a quick look I have no experience of
photran). In any case, including photran could be a nice addition to
this package you're proposing.

[*] I also have a feeling that for a Linux nut like me, using
something like eclipse might be more productive than emacs + a bunch
of terminals for compiling, debugging etc., but somehow it's always so
much easier to just fire up emacs than to start digging into and IDE,
creating a project or whatever..

> Â 2. For the Unix/Mac world: Try to get a consistent wiki on how to compile the usual libraries, like a series of pages "Compiling BLAS for dummies".

Doesn't this in many cases reduce to
"yum/apt-get/whatever-package-tool-your-OS-uses install gfortran
lapack atlas"? In any case, yes including such instructions for the
most common cases might be a good idea.

> Do any of these already exist? How do you feel about it? My own hope is that, once started, there is the serious possibility that this does not take time away from the compiler development itself, because gfortran power users could get involved in the project that way...

Agreed.



-- 
Janne Blomqvist