The most bug-free version?

[martian5]

Please, what is the most bug-free vesion of Intel Fortran Compiler for Windows between versions 9.1 and 11.1?

[bendel_boy1]

11.1 - the revision numbers then refer primarily to bugs fixed. Like most companies Intel do not release with known bugs.

[mecej4]

That is the case most of the time. However, once in a while investigation of a new bug exposes so many related problems that it may take more than one update release before that bug gets fixed; here is a link to an example of this kind of problem.

There is always the danger that fixing one bug may create new bugs or reactivate old bugs.

[mecej4]

That is a rather difficult question to answer, without more information being given.

With each new release, more Fortran 2003 features are being added to the compiler; so, naturally, the implementation of these new features may cause new bugs to be introduced. At the same time, bugs reported earlier would have been removed in the newer releases. Some bugs are "show stoppers". Others may have simple work-arounds.

If, for example, you apply to compilers to well-tested, mature Fortran-77 code, you could say that all versions from 9.1 to 11.1 were completely bug free! On the other hand, if your code uses features of Fortran-2003 that were not implemented in V-9.1 at all, but are supported in 11.1, albeit with a few bugs, which version would you consider bug free?

There will always be conflict/competition between (i) providing support for the latest features of the language, (ii) providing the extensions desired by the user community, (iii) delivering high levels of optimization and (iv) doing away with bugs.

[Kevin_D_Intel]

The latest update (currently 11.1 Update 7) will always represent the version with the most accumulative "bug fix" content and latest feature content, however, with new features come new defects, so, the question of "most bug free" is somewhat relative to the update and features used.

You are better off starting with the latest available update and staying current as best as you can given the freedom within your development environment to upgrade the compiler.