Front End for Fortran 77 compiler
and associated libraries

We have written several 'front ends' to simplify the use of Fortran from the Desktop. the earliest one uses menus and is PD, see below.

Later ones have a window based interface, they are easier to use and are now sold with the compiler. An explanation of how they work can be seen here.  

Contents of FFriends_1

last updated 30 Aug 2003

This software is available from many PD libraries, see our reviews and demos page, or you can download it from here size 224K

This software includes:

• !Fortran77
  A desktop tool allowing compilation, linking, and execution. This does NOT include the Fortran compiler nor the linker; it can be used with release 2 (and the ASD debugger if you wish), or you may use the recently released Acorn DDE with its revised linker.
  (An improved version of this which uses windows rather than menus is marketed by Intelligent Interfaces, see address above).

• Libraries written in 32-bit architecture compatible assembler for speed:
  • Binario (added 15 Jan 1992): Fast binary input/output, callable from Fortran, as used by "Interacter" from Interactive Software Services and supplied by Lawson Wakefield.
  • Graphics: 33 Graphics Routines which emulate the similar BASIC commands e.g. CALL LINE(IX1,IY1,IX2,IY2)
  • SpriteOp: 44 Sprite_Op routines for all the SpriteOps names of the form SPOPnn, nn in the range 02 to 62
  • Utils: 11 Utilities e.g. J = IGET() simulates the BASIC GET command, and a general SWI calling routine (updated twice for StrongARM).
  • Wimp: 51 Wimp routines covering all wimp operations + some utilities.
  • f77: system library which is 32-bit architecture compatible;
    this replaces the system library supplied with the compiler and has a different set of bugs.
• Fortran test programs using these libraries called Tdraw TGraphics, TSpriteOp TUtils and Twimp. There is no documentation for these other than the comments within the programs which are not intended as tutorials, just implementation tests.
• Fortran source libraries. Only the source and documentation are supplied from which libraries may be created:
  • DrawF. A set of utilities to create Draw files for ‘path’ and ‘text’ objects;
  • Graphdemo (added 31 Dec 91). A set of utilities to plot a line graph through a set of X,Y points with axes labelled with ‘nice’ values. The demo reads the points from a file (called ‘GraphData’, not supplied), and plots the graph within a window set by the user. The GraphData file has an x and a y on each line, read with free format input. It has only been tested from a non-WIMP program, and needs a little work to be usable from the WIMP. The Draw file GrfDemCons demonstrates the layout and meaning of the variables. The only other documentation is in the source code comments;
  • ACMToms (added 17 Jan 92). Various algorithms supplied by C.Johnson, originally part of the ACMToms (See Readme in that directory for further information). Adapted to run on RISC-OS by K.M.Crennell using the ‘Fortran Friends’ libraries.
  • ARTlib (added 19 Feb 93). Library of utility routines which simplify free format input, supplied by A.R.Thawley, (see Library.Docs.ARTReadMe for further information)
  • KeyInput (added 1 Feb 2000) Library of keyboard input routines supplied by Peter Borcherds. (see Library.Docs.KeyInput for further information)
• Example application written in Fortran77:
  • SphereRot (added 7 Dec 91, amended Nov 2007). An example of the use of SpriteOps for the manipulation of objects made of spheres. (Not Desktop). This application was recompiled using the Norcroft Fortran which produces 32-bit code useable on Iyonix. The original AcornSoft code still works on other machines and is included in an ‘f77’ directory within the application.
• Advice for converting a Basic program to Fortran (with example).
• List of reported bugs in Fortran77 release 2.
• List of commercial suppliers of libraries callable from Fortran.
• List of bulletin boards accessible from the Joint Academic Network.