Perhaps a project to spin off this is a MIT-licensed Fortran version of the intrinsics. Any new compiler such as LFortran might benefit, users who find the intrinsics unsuitable would have a resource for starting a custom Fortran version and if they are developed sufficiently existing compilers which often are calling C functions) could make them available, just for starters.
Unlike adding new procedures as in stdlib the interfaces are already designed, many old existing procedures exist (although the copyright status of many might be questionable or an issue).
Recent discussions in this forum on the Bessel functions and sum() have shown the potential value. Back before C several vendors supplied in their manuals the intrinsics and implementations in Fortran in great detail. CDC, Cray, and IBM did this for starters. Not just the code but the descriptions were great examples for programmers, particularly before on-line resources were readily available.
I still have a DIY collection of most of the intrinsics with range checking and other features added but the pedigree is such that those would not be suitable for release but there might be a number of them in netlib or other sources to start as seeds. If the descriptions of the development of the procedures as well as the code were available I think it would be a great resource, would be a terrific test bed for trying emerging features such as templating and parallel algorithms using coarrays, would be something Fortran only programmers could contribute to and would further several ongoing projects and potentially even existing compilers as well as the one described here.
For a new programmer being able to see a trivial implementation of something like SUM() where you just loop through and add elements of the type you are interested in; and then some versions
conditioning the data or correcting for accumulated error; and then seeing how that can be made generic; and then seeing a parallel version would have immense value in my opinion; and would contribute to this project as well.
It seems to be the low-hanging fruit that has immediate value of its own.
Personally, I think some of those old manuals were a terrific resource for learning about numeric methods and the perils of floating point operations that I sorely miss.
Things like this were available from multiple sources …
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src/dasin.f
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double precision function dasin (x)
c may 1980 edition. w. fullerton, c3, los alamos scientific lab.
double precision x, asincs(39), pi2, sqeps, y, z, dcsevl,
1 d1mach, dsqrt
external d1mach, dcsevl, dsqrt, initds
c
c series for asin on the interval 0. to 5.00000e-01
c with weighted error 1.62e-32
c log weighted error 31.79
c significant figures required 30.67
c decimal places required 32.59
c
data asincs( 1) / +.1024639175 3227159336 5731483057 85 d+0 /
data asincs( 2) / +.5494648722 1245833306 0111959029 24 d-1 /
data asincs( 3) / +.4080630392 5449692851 3070561492 46 d-2 /
data asincs( 4) / +.4078900685 4604435455 5988239056 12 d-3 /
data asincs( 5) / +.4698536743 2203691616 0485301362 18 d-4 /
data asincs( 6) / +.5880975813 9708058986 4543855520 74 d-5 /
I think some of the old manuals might still be available in scanned form that might act as a model for documentation, and so on. How many people know of Fortran sources available under an open source for the intrinsics?
The testing harnesses that would have to emerge by themselves would be an additional invaluable resource and example as well.