On Wednesday, 1994-08-03  Donald Macmillan wrote to David Noon about
"DA/2 Distributed Applica" as follows:

DM> Post code...do you mean Fortran C or DA/2 code? I know the FORTRAN
DM> code is a  dog...it was written over the last 13 years and was 
DM> originally for a VAX and then ported to a PC. Until your  comments,
DM> I had assumed that the Watcom compiler would be  able to break down
DM> the source code and optimize it for  whatever machine I was using,
DM> and for whatever programming  style. If not, it is misleading to
DM> attach the word  "optimize" to the list of compiler features. Now we
DM> know  that Watcom does NOT optimize, do you know of a superior 
DM> FORTRAN compiler?

Hi Donald,

I suspect your expectations of the optimizing capabilities are a
little too high. While an experienced FORTRAN programmer will spot
things like DO-loops being around the wrong way, the compiler has to
preserve the numerical integrity of the code at all costs. Reversing
loop arrangements can be very dangerous and most compiler developers
will not "rewrite" the source code to that extent. This is something
that has to be done by hand, preferably an experienced hand.

The DA/2 code is probably NOT where the bulk of the time is being
spent; therefore, optimizing that (if possible) would yield, at best,
marginal results. Try to determine where the time is being spent and
post some code from there; I can read FORTRAN and nearly _everybody_ in
this echo can read C/C++. Between us all, we should be able to come up
with one or two plausible suggestions. ... ;-)

Regards

Dave

___
 X KWQ/2 1.2e X If ignorance is bliss, I'm in hog heaven!!

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