[R] R and Fortran 9x -- advice

[Mike Prager]

"Christos Hatzis" <christos at nuverabio.com> wrote:

> Can you recommend any good books on Fortran 90/95?  I had been an old user
> of Fortran 77 but haven't followed the developments in the last 15 years or
> so...
 
Ravi Varadhan has already recommended Metcalf and Reid -
"Fortran 90/95 Explained."  I own and like that book, so I'll
second that, with a few caveats--

1. The same authors + M. Cohen have released "Fortran 95/2003
Explained."  If you buy, why not buy the latest?  There are as
yet no Fortran 2003 compilers, but F95 compilers are starting to
introduce F2003 features.  

2. The style of M&R(&C) is quite condensed.  Think R help pages.
If you respond to terse explanations, this is your book. If not,
check Amazon.com.

3. The book is NOT specifically written to help those moving
from F77 to F95.  For that, you might look at a Web tutorial,
such as

http://www.nsc.liu.se/~boein/f77to90/f77to90.html


--and a couple of comments:

Because standard F95, unlike F77, meets most programming needs,
many F95 programmers try to write strictly standard-conforming
code, rather than use vendor extensions.  (I have ported a
10,000+ line program from Windows to Linux with NO changes.) A
book with a detailed explanation of the Fortran 95 standard is
"Fortran 95 Handbook" by Adams et al.  I have a copy and use it
rarely, but when I just can't seem to find something in MR&C,
I'm glad to have it.

The Usenet group comp.lang.fortran has a high S/N ratio and
courteous tone, with several members of the Fortran standards
committee being frequent contributors.  It's a great resource.

HTH,
...Mike

-- 
Mike Prager, NOAA, Beaufort, NC
* Opinions expressed are personal and not represented otherwise.
* Any use of tradenames does not constitute a NOAA endorsement.