Re: Fortran 9x: time for a decision

[Paul Eggert]

> From: "Steven G. Johnson" <address@hidden>
> Date: Sun, 27 Oct 2002 19:57:14 -0400
> 
> I should also add that I'm willing to implement this in autoconf (say 
> next weekend; I'll be gone this week) if Akim et al. agree that it (or 
> something similar) is the way to go.

It sounds like the other Fortran experts like your idea, so I agree
that something like it is the way to go.  However, won't you also need
to change Automake?

I agree with others that FXX is a bad name for "the latest Fortran
compiler".  But I'm puzzled: instead of inventing a new name, why not
use GNU make's names?  Namely, "FC" for the Fortran compiler, and
"FFLAGS" for the flags to give it.  The Autoconf macro to set FC can
be called AC_PROG_FC.

Autoconf used to use "FC", in a test version.  Matthew D. Langston
changed it to use F77 for the reasons described in
<http://mail.gnu.org/pipermail/autoconf/1998-December/006693.html>.
However, it seems to me that FC is the most natural name if we want to
distinguish "the Fortran compiler that I want to use by default,
unless otherwise specified" from "the Fortran 77 compiler".  Langston
didn't consider this possibility among the three that he listed;
perhaps this was because he was focusing on the F77-only case.  I'll
CC: this message to him on the off chance that he's still interested
in this issue.

> Regarding automake, I would think that the ordinary behavior would be to 
> use $F77 for {.f, .F, .for, .f77} and $FXX for everything else (.f90, 
> .f95, etc. [*]).  However, if the configure.ac calls AC_PROG_FXX and not 
> AC_PROG_F77, then automake should use $FXX for everything.

That sounds fine to me, modulo the above discussion about "FXX" versus "FC".