PSXE 2018 update 1 and update 2: changes for Fortran programmers????

[Johannes_Rieke]

Dear Intel team,

PSXE 2018 update 1 came out now right now. Could you please specify what has changed since initial release. The release notes (https://software.intel.com/sites/default/files/managed/bd/eb/IPSXE_2018_Update1_Release_Notes_EN.pdf) contain no information for the Fortran compiler and only vague information on improvements for VS 2017 integration. Further the 18.1 documentation (https://software.intel.com/en-us/parallel-studio-xe-2018u1-doc-zip) contains the unchanged 18.0 Fortran part. No news to find there also.

Are there any changes for Fortran at all in 18 update 1?

I'm a little hesitant to install PSXE 18 update 1. I might loose syntax highlighting or other features in VS... I might get back context sensitive help... (https://software.intel.com/en-us/forums/intel-visual-fortran-compiler-for-windows/topic/744737)

Please, provide us more information.

Best regards, Johannes

[andrew_4619]

You would expect update 1 to contain fixes that didn't make the cut-off for initial release  testing, and maybe some fixes to 18.0 regressions  but given the zero information that is given anywhere on the status of fixes (a gripe that I any many other forum member have had in various threads) we can only guess. 

[Steve_Lionel]

As Andrew says, the Update 1 releases tend to have bug fixes only. I'd recommend installing it. Syntax highlighting still works. F1 now brings up a message saying that F1 help is unavailable and directs you to the online documentation.

[Johannes_Rieke]

@Andrew, Steve: many thanks for your replies. I agree with you that update 1 is assumed by all to be a bug fix release, looking back to last years minor releases.

My hope was and is, that someone from Intel can give at least a little more information.

ps: Has anyone, who lately filed an issue at OSC, got a feedback?

[Johannes_Rieke]

Hi, PSXE 2018 update 2 is out now. Again I found no information what has changed regading the Fortran compiler. Has anybody information on this?

[mecej4]

I did not know about Update 2 being released until I saw #5.

The sticky post by Devorah H. still pertains only to the initial release; no mention of Update 1 or Update 2.

[Steve_Lionel · Accepted solution]

The release notes don't mention any functional changes for compilers, but of course the update will contain bug fixes.

[JohnNichols]

Dear Steve:

I have the Intel Software Manager installed.  It did not pickup this latest update - any ideas why not. 

The ISM is telling me I am running the 2017 version even though Control Panel says 2018 - update 1. 

Warm regards

John

[Steve_Lionel]

ISM is a bit (well, more than a bit) weird in how it decides which products you have installed, in that it does not recognize version upgrades. I recall complaining about that a couple of years ago, to no effect. On my system too it says I have the 2017 version, because that's what was current when I registered the license. In other words, don't depend on ISM to notify you of updates if the current version is different from that of the initial license.

I did get an email today alerting me to the update.

[TimP]

In my tests there are a couple in f77 where update 2 has improved performance.  In f95+ the performance changes are smaller and not consistent. My download died a couple of times, but the restarts were OK.  I haven't checked the online installation lately to see whether it has learned to deal with these failures.

[rivkin__steve]

I previously installed PSXE 2018 update 1 and everything was working fine, including VS2017 Community Edition launching my Fortran project when I double clicked on the icon in Windows Explorer. After installing update 2 when I double click on the Fortran project file VS2017 hangs with a message "Loading project 1 of 1: PROGRAM_NAME". I tried updating VS2017 but that did not resolve the issue. I then tried "reparing" VS2017 and that also had no affect. However as a work around (inconvenient) I am able to separately launch VS2017 and then use File|Open to launch my Fortran project. It compiles and links fine. During installation I turned off IA-32 since I stopped building 32-bit programs over a decade ago. Any solutions?

[Steve_Lionel]

Steve Rivkin, see https://software.intel.com/en-us/forums/intel-visual-fortran-compiler-for-windows/topic/760906