Developing Fortran using Eclipse?

Peter Chapin

unread,

Dec 15, 2023, 6:59:32 PM12/15/23

to

Hello!

I'm looking to set up Eclipse for Fortran development. I'm using Eclipse
2023-12 with the latest CDT installed, and that is working fine.
Unfortunately, it appears as if the Parallel Tools Platform is dead(?).
The last update was earlier this year and it has disappeared from the
Eclipse installer.

For right now I'd be happy with a stock Fortran plugin that will work
alongside the CDT (i.e., not be incompatible with it), but even that
seems hard to find. What's the story with Fortran support for Eclipse?
Is that no longer a thing? If not, what development environment is
recommended?

Thanks,
Peter

baf

unread,

Dec 15, 2023, 8:08:43 PM12/15/23

to

The Intel compiler and associated development tools are now free for
non-commercial use. Another possibility is to use SimplyFortran which is
an IDE for gfortran.

Lynn McGuire

unread,

Dec 15, 2023, 11:13:19 PM12/15/23

to

I wish that I could use SimplyFortran. However, the debugger does not
support setting breakpoints by name or setting breakpoints by name and
the first time of call to break at. Breakpoints can only be set
visually in the code.

Lynn

Jeff Ryman

unread,

Dec 30, 2023, 2:10:09 PM12/30/23

to

Lynn, What debugger do you like? I haven't actively programmed in many
years but I am reviving some codes I developed in the 1980s and '90s
when I worked at Oak Ridge National Lab. Back in those days on the
mainframe I debugged using write statements, which of course changes
the compiled code oftentimes hiding the cause of the error. I need to
learn to use a debugger and I am open to suggestions as to which one
to use. I am currently using Simply Fortran, but I have played around
with using the CBFortran environment with GCC from www.equation.com or
www.winlibs.com. I have yet to install the Intel compiler but I intend
to try it as well.

Lynn McGuire

unread,

Dec 30, 2023, 7:00:20 PM12/30/23

to

Yup, I have thousands of write statements all over my calculation engine
triggered by TRACE=xxxxxxxx in the user input. They are but a pale
imitation of a good visual debugger.

The best visual debugger that I have used is the Open Watcom Debugger.
It handles anything that we need in Windows or DOS. It moves
transparently from C to C++ to F77 code. Sadly, it does not respect F77
breakpoints in Windows 10 x64 or Windows 11. It does respect C and C++
breakpoints so it is a nasty bug.
http://openwatcom.org/

I like Simply Fortran but it needs to expose the strength of the DBX
debugger underneath it as it is only a partial implementation. It is
not useful to us yet.

I have not tried Code::Blocks IDE for Fortran yet. I do not know if it
supports integration of C and C++ code.
https://cbfortran.sourceforge.io/

My calculation engine is 740,000 lines of F77 code and 50,000 lines of
C/C++ code.

Lynn

David Duffy

unread,

Dec 31, 2023, 2:14:07 AM12/31/23

to

Jeff Ryman <rym...@outlook.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 15 Dec 2023 22:13:12 -0600, Lynn McGuire
> <lynnmc...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>On 12/15/2023 7:08 PM, baf wrote:
>>> The Intel compiler and associated development tools are now free for
>>> non-commercial use. Another possibility is to use SimplyFortran which is
>>> an IDE for gfortran.
>>>
>>> On 12/15/2023 3:59 PM, Peter Chapin wrote:
>>>> Hello!
>>>>
>>>> I'm looking to set up Eclipse for Fortran development. I'm using
>>>> Eclipse 2023-12 with the latest CDT installed, and that is working
>>>> fine. Unfortunately, it appears as if the Parallel Tools Platform is
>>>> dead(?). The last update was earlier this year and it has disappeared
>>>> from the Eclipse installer.
>>>>
>>>> For right now I'd be happy with a stock Fortran plugin that will work
>>>> alongside the CDT (i.e., not be incompatible with it), but even that
>>>> seems hard to find. What's the story with Fortran support for Eclipse?
>>>> Is that no longer a thing? If not, what development environment is
>>>> recommended?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Peter
>>

Have you tried
https://www.oracle.com/application-development/developerstudio/

I'm afraid I've only used it a little. Stayed with gdb and valgrind even
though using with fortran is OK-but-not-brilliant.
David Duffy.

Lynn McGuire

unread,

Jan 1, 2024, 11:34:09 PMJan 1

to

I think that I used this on a Sun Sparcstation about 30 years ago.

It does appear to be for Sun systems only.

Lynn

David Duffy

unread,

Jan 2, 2024, 11:47:11 PMJan 2

to

Lynn McGuire <lynnmc...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 12/31/2023 1:14 AM, David Duffy wrote:
>>
>> Have you tried
>> https://www.oracle.com/application-development/developerstudio/
>>
>

> I think that I used this on a Sun Sparcstation about 30 years ago.
>
> It does appear to be for Sun systems only.

I've only used the 64-bit Linux version (Ubuntu). As it happens, the
fortran compiler produces executables that are roughly the same speed
as from gfortran for my applications.