Topic: First Time User Help

I need some help using the program.  I've upgraded to a 64-bit machine and my old program won't compile.  I've downloaded the 30-day trial and want to see how this is going to work for me.

I'm a simple programmer, not too many bells-n-whistles in my code.  My source codes have FOR as an extension, not F90 or F77, FWIW.

As part of my checkout, I want to take a program that worked before (under Compaq Visual Fortran) and compile/run with SF and compare results.  Hopefully that will help me validate the use of the code to satisfy the QA requirements I have here at work.

I don't see any real tutorials...someone posted a question about a tutorial but it doesn't look like that was answered, at least not to help me.  I've looked at the Help but don't see anything that is step-by-step.

Can someone provide some real basic instructions on how to do this?  I can't grasp what a "project" is and what happens during makefil, etc.  If the Help had something or on-line had something that was a 10-line program that could be coded and run to show the program steps and verify that it is installed properly, that would be very useful...to me.

Thanks for any help.

Kurt

  • jeff
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Re: First Time User Help

Kurt,

If you've downloaded and installed the latest version, 1.25, you should be presented with a "Select New Project" window as soon as you start Simply Fortran.  Two example projects are listed there.  I would suggest selecting "Hello World."  Once selected, Simply Fortran will prompt you for a location to save the project file.  I would suggest creating a new directory somewhere convenient and saving the project file there.  Once you've saved the project file, you should have a fresh project with a single source file that compiles fine.

If you need more help, look at the "Getting Started" topic in the online help under:

Integrated Development Environment->Simply Fortran IDE->Using Simply Fortran

There are some basic instructions on how to work with the program.

If you're not using version 1.25, you can upgrade by visiting http://simplyfortran.com/download/ and downloading the installer.  You can safely install over the current version, and it will not void your current trial period.

Hopefully these instructions help you get started.  Let us all know if you have any further questions.

Jeff Armstrong
Approximatrix, LLC

Re: First Time User Help

Jeff -

Thanks...a co-worker came in and showed me exactly what you suggested.  He's been listening to my "rants" on this and also has a need to consider a replacement Fortran program as well.

I haven't gotten much farther but have a few other questions:

All my past programs have an extension of FOR.  Should they be changed to just "f"?

RE: projects...let's say I have 3 major engineering project, one chemical, another aeronautical, and a final one automotive.  For each of the major projects I have say 5 unique Fortran programs associated with them.  Does this project structure in SF let me create one umbrella project for each of my engineering tasks and add the 5 Fortran programs as files under the umbrella project?  Then I can highlight one of the 5 programs, make changes, build/run, etc.?  Is that the way the project concept works with SF?

I'm trying to understand the basic organization with this.

Thanks...Kurt

  • jeff
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Re: First Time User Help

Kurt,

The ".for" extension should work just fine in Simply Fortran.  Is there any reason why you're asking?

The Simply Fortran "project" concept centers around a single compile target.  For example, in your chemical engineering project, you have 5 unique Fortran programs, or targets if we're thinking in terms of what the compiler will produce.  Each of these 5 programs would normally be 5 separate Simply Fortran projects as a single Simply Fortran Project can only have a single target. 

However, I have a few "projects" where the vast majority of the code is shared, but I need to just change a driver routine occasionally.  In those cases, I could include all 5 of my unique programs in a single Simply Fortran project and "Disable" all but one of the source files containing program blocks depending on which I need to work with.  The "Disable File" feature is available by selecting a file in the project oultine and right-clicking to bring up a project menu.  This concept, however, is a more complicated way of dealing with Simply Fortran, but it is a possibility in your case.

In your case, I would probably differentiate my 3 engineering regimes into separate directories and have each containing further subdirectories of each one of the five programs with their separate Simply Fortran projects. 

The ability to have multiple targets in a single Simply Fortran project was not implemented to maintain simplicity within the IDE.

Hopefully the above explanation makes sense.  Let me know if you need anything further.

Jeff Armstrong
Approximatrix, LLC

Re: First Time User Help

I'm not sure I'm making any progress... sad  I went through the example of Hello, World.  OK that seems fine.

So, I thought I'd try to open another project using one of the other FOR files I had written before.  I reselected the HelloWorld project, named it 12345 or whatever, it mentioned replacing an existing project(??), right clicked in the project area to open one of my existing files, right clicked on the hello.exe and removed it, leaving my FOR file.  Saved, did a build, got some compilation errors (that I have no clue why it's complaining), launched the program anyway, and got the DOS window that said "Hello World".  Huh?  I thought I deleted that??

Sorry, but this is making no sense to me.

Kurt

  • jeff
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Re: First Time User Help

Kurt,

Without knowing what the compilation errors are, I'm really not sure what advice to give as to why your code is not compiling.  The reason you're still seeing the "Hello World" output, however, is because the executable still exists on disk.  I would suggest performing a "Clean" first, which would involve selecting that action in the Build menu.  The executable and all intermediate files will be deleted.

Jeff Armstrong
Approximatrix, LLC

Re: First Time User Help

Jeff -

I don't think it's necessary to try and help me with my programming.  I did get a nice response off-line from John and sent him something to illustrate my problems.  Funny thing is that when trimming things down to give him the essence of my problems, it worked!  No compilation errors.  Doh!  I can't explain it.

Or maybe I can.  I decided to force all lines to begin in column 7.  Once I did that, I ended up with no compilation errors.  Fine with me, I like to have things very structured.  That's the way I learned...start in column 7.  Nice thing is, all of the standard actions (Read, Write, Do, etc.) turn pink when starting in column 7.  Visually, that helps to organize things.

One thing that still doesn't make sense...on some lines where it's a continuation, I put an "&" in column 6 and continue my coding.  But that line turns green, indicating it's a comment??  But once compiled and run, the continuation of the line prints at the top of my file correctly.  So, the green is not a comment???  Confusing.

Now I'm in kind of a pickle.  One bright individual here at work figured out how to get the old Visual Fortran to compile on a 64-bit machine with Win7.  Kind of a kludge but it does run and after some checking, gives the same output as before.

So, I don't know if I should continue to investigate SF.  I wonder what other kind of "issues" I might find.  One thing that I found is that in my code I had used logical unit 6 as an input file...that didn't seem to bother Visual Fortran.  But in SF, the program is using that as the "standard" output file and overwrote my inputs.  I remember from the old days that LU 5 and 6 were reserved...but as I said, Visual Fortran let me use them however I wanted.

Thanks...Kurt

Re: First Time User Help

Don't go back to Visual Fortran. 
If you mean CVF then I am v surprised that you got it to work but I have read many forum messages talking about further probs even when it seemed to work.  For me, SF very much has the edge, and Iwouldn't go back even if I could.
---
J.

  • jeff
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Re: First Time User Help

kschrader wrote:

Jeff -

I don't think it's necessary to try and help me with my programming.  I did get a nice response off-line from John and sent him something to illustrate my problems.  Funny thing is that when trimming things down to give him the essence of my problems, it worked!  No compilation errors.  Doh!  I can't explain it.

Kurt,

I wasn't trying to suggest you needed help with your programming; rather, I was more afraid you had encountered a bug.  Sometimes there is a subtle issue that I might not have explained properly.

kschrader wrote:

Or maybe I can.  I decided to force all lines to begin in column 7.  Once I did that, I ended up with no compilation errors.  Fine with me, I like to have things very structured.  That's the way I learned...start in column 7.  Nice thing is, all of the standard actions (Read, Write, Do, etc.) turn pink when starting in column 7.  Visually, that helps to organize things.

Simply Fortran and GNU Fortran will always assume a file ending in .for or .f is a "fixed-format" FORTRAN source file, requiring statements to start in the seventh column.  The enforcement of this rule is probably far more strict than Compaq Visual Fortran.

kschrader wrote:

One thing that still doesn't make sense...on some lines where it's a continuation, I put an "&" in column 6 and continue my coding.  But that line turns green, indicating it's a comment??  But once compiled and run, the continuation of the line prints at the top of my file correctly.  So, the green is not a comment???  Confusing.

This behavior is definitely a bug in the syntax highlighting engine.  I'll have a look at it.   Good catch!

kschrader wrote:

Now I'm in kind of a pickle.  One bright individual here at work figured out how to get the old Visual Fortran to compile on a 64-bit machine with Win7.  Kind of a kludge but it does run and after some checking, gives the same output as before.

The benefit of working with Simply Fortran is that the package and the compiler continue to be supported.  Furthermore, GNU Fortran has advanced far beyond CVF in terms of supported standards.  GNU Fortran implements much of Fortran 2003 and some of Fortran 2008, whereas CVF remains at Fortran 95.  However, I can certainly understand sticking with CVF if it continues to suit your needs.

kschrader wrote:

So, I don't know if I should continue to investigate SF.  I wonder what other kind of "issues" I might find.  One thing that I found is that in my code I had used logical unit 6 as an input file...that didn't seem to bother Visual Fortran.  But in SF, the program is using that as the "standard" output file and overwrote my inputs.  I remember from the old days that LU 5 and 6 were reserved...but as I said, Visual Fortran let me use them however I wanted.

GNU Fortran is, again, probably far more strict about units 5 and 6 than CVF was.  The GNU Fortran developers tend to be sticklers for standards. 

I do hope you'll continue to explore Simply Fortran.  I am trying to help, but I understand that Simply Fortran's workflow is often different than what people expect.  You should be able to start a project fresh by selecting "Command-Line Program" from the "Select New Project" window and add your files to the resulting project.  The "Hello World" example was included in an attempt to overcome the initial learning curve, so I'm always interested in new user feedback with regards to starting with the package. 

When you talk about more specific instructions, what would you expect to see?  I'd like to, of course, provide the most helpful documentation possible for new users.  Any suggestions would be welcome.

Jeff Armstrong
Approximatrix, LLC