Ultrix `fort' vs BSD `f77'

[pavlov at hscfvax.UUCP]

In article <5110 at mimsy.UUCP>, chris at mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek) writes:
> >In article <748 at imagen.UUCP> geof at imagen.UUCP writes:
> 
> In article <251 at skatter.UUCP> kuo at skatter.UUCP (Dr. Peter Kuo) writes:
> >I would gladly use this shell command! We found that the new Ultrix FORTRAN
> >is at least 3-4 times faster than f77, even though a few bugs have been found
> >in fort.
> 
> Does that mean it *compiles* 3-4 times faster, or that the code *runs*
> 3-4 times faster after having been compiled?  And what code?
> .................... I would be greatly surprised to find that even
> the ported VMS compiler could beat even the old 4.2 f77 by a factor
> of four, except on carefully selected benchmarks.

  We have some experience with both fort and f77 (on uVax II's).  Re bugs and
  speed:
   fort does not compile any faster (maybe a bit slower, in fact). But it does
   execute much faster in computation-intensive applications.  Ratio apx.
   2 - 3 : 1 .
   A "few bugs" may be an understatement.  Has anyone had any positive exper-
   iences getting help with these from DEC ??

    greg pavlov, fstrf, amherst, ny