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[patch, fortran, docs] Rewrite "GFortran and G77" section.
- From: Brooks Moses <brooks dot moses at codesourcery dot com>
- To: gcc-patches at gcc dot gnu dot org
- Cc: fortran at gcc dot gnu dot org
- Date: Mon, 05 Mar 2007 13:44:20 -0800
- Subject: [patch, fortran, docs] Rewrite "GFortran and G77" section.
The attached patch is a fairly complete rewrite of the "GFortran and
G77" section of the manual. It also dramatically shortens it; at this
point, the justification for starting anew seems to me more appropriate
for the dusty bin of history than the current user manual.
Tested with "make pdf" and "make info" on i686-pc-linux-gnu. Ok for
trunk and 4.2?
------------------------------------------------------------------
2007-03-05 Brooks Moses <brooks.moses@codesourcery.com>
* gfortran.texi (GFortran and G77): Rewrite completely.
------------------------------------------------------------------
- Brooks
Index: gfortran.texi
===================================================================
--- gfortran.texi (revision 120428)
+++ gfortran.texi (working copy)
@@ -391,38 +391,14 @@
@cindex Fortran 77
@cindex G77
-Why do we write a compiler front end from scratch?
-There's a fine Fortran 77 compiler in the
-GNU Compiler Collection that accepts some features
-of the Fortran 90 standard as extensions.
-Why not start from there and revamp it?
+The GNU Fortran compiler is the successor to G77, the Fortran 77 front
+end included in GCC prior to version 4. It is an entirely new program
+that has been designed to provide Fortran 95 support and extensibility
+for future Fortran language standards, as well as providing backwards
+compatibility for Fortran 77 and nearly all of the GNU language
+extensions supported by G77.
-One of the reasons is that Craig Burley, the author of G77,
-has decided to stop working on the G77 front end.
-On @uref{http://world.std.com/~burley/g77-why.html,
-Craig explains the reasons for his decision to stop working on G77}
-in one of the pages in his homepage.
-Among the reasons is a lack of interest in improvements to
-@command{g77}.
-Users appear to be quite satisfied with @command{g77} as it is.
-While @command{g77} is still being maintained (by Toon Moene),
-it is unlikely that sufficient people will be willing
-to completely rewrite the existing code.
-But there are other reasons to start from scratch.
-Many people, including Craig Burley,
-no longer agreed with certain design decisions in the G77 front end.
-Also, the interface of @command{g77} to the back end is written in
-a style which is confusing and not up to date on recommended practice.
-In fact, a full rewrite had already been planned for GCC 3.0.
-
-When Craig decided to stop,
-it just seemed to be a better idea to start a new project from scratch,
-because it was expected to be easier to maintain code we
-develop ourselves than to do a major overhaul of @command{g77} first,
-and then build a Fortran 95 compiler out of it.
-
-
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