🚀 go-pugleaf

I have compared these two compilers on a Mac II in an effort to determine
which one is more usable. Originally I bought Absoft Fortran/020, but the
frequency of unexplained system errors and the buggy nature of the code
produced rendered the compiler essentially useless.

The summary is that MacTran is harder to use and less polished in general,
but it has one extreme advantage: it works, and it works NOW. I have been
porting several extremely large programs from a VAX, and MacTran was able to
handle then with only a few minor changes (units, etc.). MPW Fortran was
unable to run them successfully (a system error in one case, and incorrect
results in the other).

MPW Fortran is a much nicer environment, however. Editing is quite natural as
is the somewhat Unix-like shell interface. Even though it is less graphically
oriented, it is much less frustrating on a day-to-day basis than MacTran's
interface, which does not adhere completely to the Mac standard. However,
the fact is that MPW Fortran is not debugged yet.

So my recommendation is to get MacTran Plus if you need a good-quality Fortran
compiler right away. However, think about making the switch to MPW Fortran
once a less buggy version comes out. It is still in beta, after all. Avoid
Absoft Fortran like the plague; it is worse than both of them.

Bill Lipa
lipa%polya@forsythe.stanford.edu

PS. MacTran Plus is from DCM Data Products, (817)870-2202. MPW Fortran is
from Language Systems Corp., (703)478-0181.