What should go in a FAQ?

[Steven_L_Intel1]

I want to put together a FAQ for Intel Visual Fortran - one that will be prominently displayed to users when they install. It should contain tips that might not be immediately obvious to new users, for example, that the default RECL= unit is 4 bytes. What else?

Add your suggestions and I'll see them when I return.

[anthonyrichards]

..that SAVE is not the default for local variables in IVF, so if variables that are initialised by a previous call are wanted in subsequent calls, they must be given the SAVE attribute or use a global SAVE statement in the subprogram.

..that when dealing with character strings in mixed language programs , e.g. calling the Windows API funcions, all strings sent should be terminated with a null[CHAR(0)] or strings will be received back with a null terminator, so the null character must be allowed for when dimensioning a string for such use.

[TimP]

Options required for standard compliance
/fp:source vs. /assume:protect_parens,minus0,.... /Qprec-div /Qprec-sqrt

typical options for code cleanup: /check , /Qdiag-enable (if recommended)

[Greg_T_]

Hello,

Perhaps point out in the FAQ that variable types can be implicit in Fortran, andrecommendusing theIMPLICIT NONE command to take advantage of the compiler checking for all variables used in a routine. I think that implicit none may be one of my favorite Fortran commands since it helps me avoid so much difficulty in mis-typed variable names.

If the FAQ would be seen during installation, perhaps point out the many resources availble to get started with Fortran, such as the on-line help, this forum, and even recommend several Fortran books (I think there was a thread about recommended books), etc.

Regards,
Greg

[Darrell]

I'm all for having the error messages rewritten so you don't need a FAQ on what they mean. In the meantime, the biggest frustration we had porting from DEC/Compaq Visual Fortran 6 to Intel Visual Fortran 11.1 was the new generate interface blocks.

In the end, the new smarter & pickier compiler was right but it was very frustrating tracking it down.

The FAQ would show how to turn on/off the compiler options and how to look at the generated interface block and compare back to what you think you are passing in to resolve the problem. Simple examples would be good too.

Like I said, once we figured out what the compiler was trying to tell us, it was right and our code is now better for it. It sure was frustrating hearing everyone cry "but it used to work" over & over until we dug in and examined each calling argument's delcaration, dimension, and shape.

Maybe there should be a Fortran wiki?

Maybe the discussion forum should have a nominate as Frequently Asked Question box like the user ratings?

Thanks to Dr Fortran we still have our sanity and our code compiles! :-)

We're also starting to remove cDEC$ and use dflib etc a nice table mapping the old to the new similar to the Fortran 2003 ISO C bindings stuff might be good too but I don't know enough about that yet...

[Jugoslav_Dujic]

Quoting Wayne

Maybe there should be a Fortran wiki?

Maybe there is one :)

[Arjen_Markus]

Try: http://fortranwiki.org/

Regards,

Arjen

[gib]

How to configure the properties to generate traceback info.

[abhimodak]

Perhaps some points on:

(1) dll creation and linking (from command line and from Visual studio): the issue here being manifest embedding. Also, choices such as /libs:static

(2) Note on how to see module variables while debugging

[lklawrie]

Brief discussion of why results from Debug vs Release vs various compiler options are different.