Understanding Intel Software Network Forums

[Intel_C_Intel]

Hello,

Im recently here. But I have been confused. I dont understand where I should write a post like Hello, Im in a big trouble. Who will help me to write on Fortran bla-bla-bla? In Intel Fortran Compiler for Windows or for Linux. Or just algo-rithms and approaches in Fortran. Ive read a lot of topics and posts in those forums: in the majority of them people discuss a common questions and problems delivered to Fortran language. But one part is in one forum, another is in second and most of us in both.

May be it would be better tojoin this two forums to a whole Intel Fortran Compiler forum. Not because C++ forum is one, of course. Also there are a lot of questions in CVF Migration forum relative to Fortran as language but not to migration. I under-stand if someone asks: I used to program on CVF and how do that on IFC now? It doesnt work. Or something like this. I think, questions relative to IFC not to differ-ences of IFC and CVF should be discussed on IFC forum.

Another question is OpenMP. As you probably know specification of OpenMP 2.5 version was published in may. Nothing special but idea is very important. In one document OpenMP is described for both C/C++ and Fortran languages. The concepts and methodology are the same, only syntax differs a little bit. So I suggest to create a separate forum OpenMP and parallel programming. It would be very useful to see what problems and questions in OpenMP C/C++/Fortran arise in a whole forum. And I dont say that it absolutely dont care where you use Fortran/C++ OpenMP in Win-dows or in Linux. Why not on Threading Intel Parallel Architectures? Well, there are a lot of topics considered to OpenMP in Fortrans and C++ Compilers forums. So now OpenMP is discussed in at least four forums: Fortran Linux and Windows, C++ and Threading. Why it happened? I dont know. Probably because Threading is in Platform/Technology section but programmers what to talk about OpenMP constructs closer to their languages forum.

Sorry for my English and pathos in which I wrote this post. I hope you (espe-cially moderators) will understand me. I publish topic only on this forum because its the most popular and not to spam.

Message Edited by StanislavFedorov on 08-19-2005 08:26 AM

[Steven_L_Intel1]

Stanislav,

Thanks for your questions and comments. I'm pleased to see you contributing to the forum.

The first Intel software forum was the old Compaq Visual Fortran forum moved to Intel (after the CVF development team moved to Intel.) At that time, it was my thought that Linux users and Windows users asked different kinds of questions, and that there would be enough activity to support two forums. While the Linux Fortran forum started slowly, because it did not have an established user base, it has over the past two years become very active in its own and it does indeed get very different kinds of questions than the Windows forum.

There is only one C++ forum because the activity level was lower at first, and the majority of our C++ users are on Linux. If it seems worthwhile in the future, we may split it.

So to answer your first question, post in the forum for the product you are using. If it is a Fortran language question, either one is fine.

The CVF Migration forum is an experiment. I thought that there would be a lot of people with questions relating specifically to moving from CVF to Intel Fortran, but that does not seem to be happening, even though response to the migration offer has been high. I guess we did a better job than we thought at making the move easy! We will probably close that forum later this year and move the topics here.

You are correct that OpenMP is applicable to both Fortran and C++. The problem with having a separate forum is if it does not generate enough activity to keep going. We do split off forums - Array Visualizer now has its own and the Intel Debugger may also get its own soon. With the growing use of multicore systems, OpenMP will become more important, and perhaps a forum for it will also be useful. We would need to identify one or more Intel people who are knowledgeable about OpenMP and who would agree to moderate the forum.

It is not good to split forums too much, because if relatively few people participate in them, they become stale. But as our forums grow in usage, and they have, we will be looking for topics where a separate forum makes sense.

I hope this helps.

[Intel_C_Intel]

Hello, Steve.

Thank you, I understood and absolutely agreed. Splitting may make sense first of all of cross-language topics. Anyway I will be at least on all three Fortran-forums :).

There are not so much Fortran-forums in the world. I know Numerical Recipes more, and thats all for me. Thats why I need some time to find this forum. May be someone knows very helpful Fortran Start Page (http://fortran.domeintje.net) from which I started one day. I proposed J. Verburgt, the author of this page, to add Intel Software Network Forum link to Forums section of the page. I hope Intel Fortran programmers will find this place more quickly. Thanks for this to Verburgt and welcome new forumers!