Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!mailrus!uwmcsd1!nic.MR.NET!umn-cs!crayview!imp From: imp@crayview.msi.umn.edu (Chuck Lukaszewski) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac Subject: Re: Microsoft cuts corners, actually (they do!) Summary: Oh, that reminds me of MS Fortran for the Mac! Message-ID: <6846@umn-cs.cs.umn.edu> Date: 22 Aug 88 02:02:31 GMT References: <7988@cup.portal.com> <5832@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu> <9250@cs.tcd.ie> Sender: news@umn-cs.cs.umn.edu Lines: 35 In article <9250@cs.tcd.ie>, omullarney@cs.tcd.ie (omullarney@csvax1.cs.tcd.ie) writes: > We bought a MicroSoft Fortran compiler some time ago ($400-500) for the > (gasp - wait for it) IBM PC (no, really, I use Mac's now). We were working Thanks Oliver - The very first thing I should have criticized in my post last week was Microsoft Fortran for the Mac. We purchased Microsoft Fortran for one of the professors at the Minnesota Super- Computer Institute, and I was given the task of converting to the Mac a couple of pieces of Fortran courseware that ran on Sun workstations. I sat down and got to work and ran into problem after problem after problem. To begin with, the documentation was terrible. By that I mean that basic things like execution environment weren't even discussed, and the documentation on the linker, compiler, etc was missing crucial details. Then I discovered that, contrary to Microsoft's advertising, many toolbox calls WERE NOT supported. The first ones I ran into were in QUICKDRAW of all places. I ended up having to hack some 68000 trap invoc- ations into the generated code in order to complete the project. Well, I haven't had to touch Microsoft Fortran since then (I usually work in 680x0 or C), but I did hear something very relevant and very curious. It seems that Microsoft didn't actually do the compiler. It was really a company called Absoft, which makes Fortran compilers. Fine. Well, they have THREE versions of a Fortran compiler for the Mac. It is the low-end one that they sold to Micro- soft. Absoft sells on its own a product called Fortran/020 for the Mac which uses the IDENTICAL manual, but at least has all of the trap calls in it. Looks like Microsoft was shortchanged in addition to all of Microsoft's customers. Perhaps better homework on Microsoft's part would have changed the situation, but then again, they don't seem to be into checking products for bugs before they get shipped. Heh - we still haven't heard from the Microsoft boys yet on this particular discussion. I hope they're either planning a revolution or looking for new jobs. ---===---===---===---===--/* Chuck Lukaszewski */--===---===---===---===--- ARPAnet/NSFnet/MRnet: AppleLink: SnailMail: Ma Bell: imp@crayview.msi.umn.edu UG0138 Minneapolis MN 55418 612/789-0931