[cfe-dev] Clang should natively support fortran

[C Bergström via cfe-dev]

I work with LAPACK(E) every day, but it's not a base OS requirement.
------------
CLAPACK, which removes the direct dependency on a Fortran compiler was
just an F2C translation and small clean-up. Anyone could likely rerun
that against the latest LAPACK.
http://www.netlib.org/clapack/faq.html

Small nit/observation: While gfortran may be the default installed
Fortran compiler, I'm not sure it's the most popular Fortran
production tool. In addition, currently no 2 Fortran compilers share
compatible modules. (Think of modules as sorta like pre-compiled
headers.. sorta) so it's quite  common for users or system integrators
to directly download lapack and build it with their preferred tool.
(Not relying on system provided)

Anecdotally, if Fortran was so generally important, I think Apple or
Google would have smashed that problem a long time ago.

imho
Base OS - Not important (system compiler)

Specific uses cases - extremely important (ports?)
---------
Trick question.. what if OpenBLAS gets an optimized lapack.. which
version do you pick..
https://github.com/xianyi/OpenBLAS/commit/41000c8443452b7cad0fa85898d44735aabd3cff


On Fri, Jun 24, 2016 at 12:35 AM, Stephen Canon <scanon at apple.com> wrote:
> On Jun 22, 2016, at 5:54 PM, C Bergström via cfe-dev
> <cfe-dev at lists.llvm.org> wrote:
>
> Sorry to troll your post, but who on earth uses FreeBSD+Fortran? As a
> person who works on a Fortran compiler almost every day I'm actually
> asking. I suspect FreeBSD could remove support for Fortran and it
> wouldn't even get noticed.
>
>
> Linear algebra makes the world go round.  LAPACK in particular is used in
> all sorts of places one might not expect at first, and AFAIK the CLAPACK
> distribution is frozen at 3.2.1 vs (Fortran) LAPACK at 3.6.1.
>
> – Steve