Using Intel Fortran 64-bit without purchasing full Visual Studio?

[peterherman]

PROBLEM SOLVED in meantime. I solved my problem by downloading Microsoft SDK 7.1 and updates, and by making a file vcvars64.bat in the amd64 directory. Compiled and linked my programme - all OK. Peter

I have purchased Intel Parallel Studio and want to install it on a 64-bit machine for 64-bit appliations. While installing, it says that Visual Studio lacks a 64-bit C++ compiler and libraries. This is true. Under the ...\\VC\\bin directory a directory amd64 should be present, but it isn't. Therefore I can compile but not link my programme (from the command line, in the appropriate DOS window). Does this mean that after purchasing Intel Parallel Studio I also will have to purchase the very expensive full Visual Studio before I can do anything useful?

Thanks for your suggestions, Peter

[Steven_L_Intel1]

Intel Parallel Studio XE provides both Intel C++ and Intel Visual Fortran. The C++ compiler does require that the Microsoft C++ compiler be present, but Intel Fortran does not. I am not sure exactly how this works with Parallel Studio XE, but you do have access to the Microsoft Visual Studio Shell we provide with Intel Visual Fortran. This provides all you need to build 32-bit and 64-bit Fortran applications.

Now that I look at the Parallel Studio XE install, I see it does not include the VS Shell. You can install that by downloading Intel Visual Fortran Composer XE and then install the rest of Parallel Studio XE. You will want the Shell in order to use Visual Studio to build and debug.

[peterherman]

Steve, thanks for your answer. There IS VS Shell 2010 with Intel Parallel Studio XE. My problem was that I had to compile a program from within the DOS prompt, because it had all make files etc. that I did not want to change. When invoking ifort from the DOS shell, the compiler came up and made all object files. However, it did not link, because it was unable to locate VC++ 64 bit linker and library files. The error message was "could not find link", and the reason for not finding it was that the batch files to set environmental variables require the VC directory to have a subdirectory 'amd64', with link and libraries (not sure whether they do anything with it, though). But as I wrote, this has been solved by loading SDK.

[Steven_L_Intel1]

That should not have been necessary - the install of VS Shell 2010 should also have installed the command-line components you need. But if you got it to work, great.

[peterherman]

Steve, what you write is correct and not correct. I found out that, indeed, everything necessary for compiling fortran programs was delivered with the Intel software. However, it is installed at a place where the DOS shell cannot find it, unless you had it there by installing a complete Visual Studio or SDK, as I did.

How does it work. When you open the DOS shell, it starts the batch file C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Composer XE 2011 SP1\bin\ipsxe-comp-vars.bat. This calls compilervars.bat in the same directory. This calls, among others, compilervars-arch.bat in the same directory. And this file calls "%VS100COMNTOOLS%..\..\VC\vcvarsall.bat", which on my system evaluates to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VC\vcvarsall.bat. That file exists, but for intel64 configuration wants to call the file %~dp0bin\amd64\vcvars64.bat. There you have the problem, because the directory C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VC\bin\amd64 does not exist after a clean install. For that reason the batch file results in an error, and the consequence of that is that the linker cannot be found.

But you were also correct! The directory VC\amd64 is present after the install, only it is found in another place. I have discovered it by accident in the following path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Intel Fortran\Microsoft Files\VC\Bin\amd64.

I guess that changing the batch files to point to that directory, or copying the amd64 directory to where it is supposed to be (by the batch files)could solve this problem. Also, I assume that one has no problem when working from Visual Studio because then another way of setting all variables is used.

Hope this has clarified the issue.

Peter

[Steven_L_Intel1]

It should all work automatically, from Visual Studio and the command line. I suspect the problem is that you first installed Parallel Studio without the shell installed, and then installed the shell. This did not replace the batch files which are a bit different when installed over the shell.

Try this. Uninstall Fortran and then reinstall Update 6 of Fortran using the "novsshell" download and see if that fixes it up.