Feedback Needed

One of the most important things that I need is feedback. I have forgotten the times when someone has come to me and has told - just by curiosity - that something has been wrong for a while in Force but he/she just skirts the error and keep going living with it. Instead of keeping it I would love to receive e-mails about it. Let's improve Force together!

Below are some items I think will be helpful to everyone.

1. Have you found something wrong?
2. Have you found a bug or misplaced functionality?
3. Have you found a typo somewhere?
4. What's the most annoying thing in Force for you?
5. What's the best thing in Force for you?
6. Have you had an idea to share?
7. And suggestions?
8. Anything else?

Contact me by e-mail at: lepsch@gmail.com

Thank you!

Downloads

Just released version 2.0.9 and 3.0 beta 3!

Filename	Size	Description
Force209GFortranSetup.exe	10.6 MB	Force 2.0.9 plus GNU Fortran (GFortran)
Force209G95Setup.exe	3.55 MB	Force 2.0.9 plus G95 Fortran (G95)
Force209G77Setup.exe	2.03 MB	Force 2.0.9 plus GNU Fortran 77 (G77)
Force3beta3Setup.exe	2.19 MB	Force 3.0 b3 plus GNU Fortran 77 (G77)

Vista Problem Solved

A million thanks to the people that have reported me about Vista problems, in special to Boris. Because of that I have figured out the bug that affected all versions of Force, until version 2.0.8 and 3.0b2. I don't know exactly why but the problem occurs on machines with Office 2007 installed.

I have uploaded two new versions, the Force 2.0.9 and Force 3.0 beta 3.

Thank you all!

Force plus Fortran 90 compiler

I have made two installers packed each one with a different Fortran 90 compiler and Force 2.0.8. One of the installers come with the GNU Fortran from GNU Compiler Collection and the other one come with the independent G95 Fortran. Both of them are capable of compiling Fortran 90/95/2003 and possibly 2008.

UPDATE: Download here

Filename	Size	Description
Force208GFortranSetup.exe	10.6 MB	Force 2.0.8 plus GNU Fortran (GFortran)
Force208G95Setup.exe	3.55 MB	Force 2.0.8 plus G95 Fortran (G95)
Force208G77Setup.exe	2.03 MB	Force 2.0.8 plus GNU Fortran 77 (G77)
Force3beta2Setup.exe	2.23 MB	Force 3.0 plus GNU Fortran 77 (G77)

Fortran by Fortran: The Format statement

One of the things in Fortran I always have some doubt is the format specification fields of FORMAT statement. Time to time I see myself looking for its specification fields. PRINT, WRITE, READ and FORMAT are the ones that uses the formating specifications. Here is the list of the most important ones.

FORMAT SPECIFICATION FIELDS:

Format field	Properties	Data type
Iw[.m]	w - width m - leading zeros	Integer values
Fw.d	w - width d - decimal point precision	Float values
Ew.d[Ee]	w - width d - decimal point precision e - optional exponent width	Float values (Engineering mode)
Ew.d[Ee]	w - width d - decimal point precision e - optional exponent width	Float values (Engineering mode)
Dw.d	w - width d - decimal point precision	Double precision values
Lw	w - width	Logical values
A[w]	w - width	String values
Zw	w - width	Hexadecimal values
Ow[.m]	w - width m - leading zeros	Octal values
"a" or 'a'	a - string sequence	Outputs the string sequence
nX	n - number of spaces	Outputs n space characters
nH	n - number of chars	Hollerith constant - Outputs the next n characters
$		Doesn't output line break

HOW TO USE:

How to use the format statement and its format specification fields? One way you declare a FORMAT statement is something like below:

r FORMAT (f1,f2,...,fn)

r - Label number
f1,f2,...,fn - format specification fields

Its easy to use it, the only thing you must remember is the label number r.

PRINT r,e1,e2,...,en
WRITE (unit, r) e1,e2,...,en
READ r,e1,e2,...,en
READ (unit, r),e1,e2,...,en

Where e1,e2,...,en are expressions matching each one a format specification field.

The other way to declare the format specification fields is explicitly writing it. You change the label number by a quoted format specifications fields like below.

PRINT '(f1,f2,...,fn)',e1,e2,...,en

New translations

Here are two three new translations, Korean, Polish and Russian. Thanks to authors. To download the translation right-click it and choose Save Target As (or Save Link As).

Filename	Language	Version	Author
chinesezh.lngx	Chinese Simplified	2.0.7-8	Jianbo Xie
english.lngx	English	2.0.8	Guilherme Lepsch
french.lngx	French	2.0.7-8	Pierre Pelletier
german.lngx	German	2.0.7-8	Jochen
italian.lngx	Italian (incomplete)	2.0.7-8	Gerlando Lo Savio
japanese.lngx	Japanese (incomplete)	2.0.7-8	Pines
korean.lngx	Korean	2.0.8	Kang Pilmo
polish.lngx	Polish	2.0.8	Wladyslaw Tomaszewicz
portuguese.lngx	Portuguese (Brazil)	2.0.8	Guilherme Lepsch
russian.lngx	Russian (80%)	2.0.8	Anatoly A. Stupakov
spanish.lngx	Spanish	2.0.7-8	Alejandro F. Braña
thai.lngx	Thai	2.0.7-8	Patranun Limudomporn

If you wish to publish your translation, don't hesitate to send it to me.

UPDATE: New Korean translation. Thank you Kang.

UPDATE 2: Fixed broken links

Update status and Vista problems

After a long time, 3 years, I have finally got some spare time to update the Force. At this moment I'm working on Unicode support. This means that it will be possible to write Fortran programs in Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Greek etc.

The Unicode support wasn't on my schedule, but the migration from Delphi 7 to Delphi 2009 (D2009) have forced me to do it. Because D2009 is Vista compatible in its basis, I wish the problems people are reporting about Vista incompatibility ends with it. The downside is that Windows 95, 98 and Me will not be supported anymore, only the NT platform (2000, XP, Vista etc.).

I cannot simulate the Vista problems people are complaining in any of my tests. I have tested Force 2.0.8 and Force 3.0 beta 2 with Vista 32 bit and 64 bit. Until now there are two problems I have noticed. The first is about PIF files that Force creates for default. Vista 64 bit refuses to run it and I have to change the execution mode to "direct" in both versions of Force. In Vista 32 bit Force runs fine. The second is about the terminal emulation mode in Force 3. It's broken on Vista.

If you would like to help me finding these Vista problems I will be glad if you mail me with screenshots, a detailed report step by step.

May the Force be with you.