Fortran for 3B1 needed

[Thad P Floryan]

n177ac at tamuts.tamu.edu (Daryl Biberdorf) in <11388 at helios.TAMU.EDU> writes:

	>Microsoft Basic (interpreter)
	>(someone's) compiled Basic
	>SVS Pascal
	>Ryan-McFarland (sp?) COBOL

	Thad, I assume these must be purchase-able things rather than
	freely distributable, but where can they be obtained?  What kinds
	of prices are we looking at here?

You're correct about these (and other) being commercial products.

Probably the best of the lot are those available from LPI in Mass.  I'd
have to look up their address (at my office), but they have a complete line
of language compilers, windowing source-level debugger, common optimized
code generator, etc. for their entire product line (for the 3B1 and other
systems) which includes:

	C	Fortran		Cobol		RPG-II
	Pascal	Basic

and possibly others (by now).  Last time I checked (last year), the price
of their Fortran for the 3B1 was around $750.

To the best of my knowledge, neither Microsoft nor SVS are still selling
their products for the 3B1.  The places to find their software are such like
swap meets, flea markets, surplus stores, etc. (that's how I got Microsoft
Word, dBASE III, Supercomp 20, Multiplan, etc.)  MicroAge (last time I checked)
still had a bunch of 3B1 language and other products in stock at close to the
original retail prices (OUCH!).  And sometimes one can find software already
installed on "used" systems that one buys (that's how I got my copy of SVS
Fortran and Microsoft Basic).

The AT&T COMPUTER SOFTWARE CATALOG and the Uniforum (USENIX?  the "old"
/usr/group) UNIX Products Catalogs list a number of vendors of 3B1 products,
so it may be worthwhile to get those catalogs and call the vendors and see
if "reasonable" prices can be negotiated.

Unless you can get a GOOD price on either LPI or SVS Fortran, I'd recommend
the f2c (18-Jan-1991 version) from research.att.com which is free (and be SURE
to get the library sources!)  I just this evening printed out on a PostScript
laser printer the f2c.ps file and it's quite comprehensive (26 pages, incl.
two "man" pages)

Thad Floryan [ thad at cup.portal.com ]