Here’s the agenda for the call tomorrow (times in ET):
2:00: Call start and introduction
2:05: Where we are–current state of fortran-lang
2:10: stdlib–next steps and one year out
2:20: fpm–next steps and one year out
2:30: Website–next steps and one year out
2:35: Compilers–next steps and one year out
2:45: FortranCon 2020
2:50: Free form discussion and feedback from others
3:00: Call end
Started organically in October of 2019 when Ondrej created the GitHub repo to track J3 proposals and solicit feedback from the community;
Several proposals got drafted on GitHub and were discussed at the February meeting
In December we started the Fortran Standard Library (stdlib) repo and put it into the fortran-lang GitHub org.
In January, Dominik proposed the idea of a Fortran package manager in the stdlib repo issue; Ondrej started working on it (link); Brad joined and took the lead; We currently have a minimal working version that can build, test, and run a pure Fortran project.
Jeremie and Ondrej: Current focus on scientific and numeric utilities with the similar scope as SciPy.
What’s missing: Good documentation. We focused on spec early on, but a good user-friendly documentation is missing and highly needed. Melissa suggested improving this (https://github.com/fortran-lang/stdlib/issues/182). Steve suggested that a good user-friendly documentation should not be written by implementers, but by users who can talk to implementers and ask them questions. Zaak discussed FORD, Mkdocs, good for API docs but can also add custom text content that isn’t from docstrings.
We need users.
fpm (Brad, Ondrej):
Next steps: Get remote (pure Fortran) repositories to build.
Long term: Binary distributions from Conda/Mamba for non-Fortran dependencies that are out of source; pure Fortran source built locally.
Gary: Why not build on what Spack is doing? Ondrej: Spack doesn’t help with building, package maintainer must write a Python script etc. See https://github.com/fortran-lang/fpm/issues/79
Brad: fpm aims to standardize the project structure so that the user doesn’t have to worry about setting up the build system.
There was a lot of discussion here, there’s need for more dedicated conversations around fpm. It’s a difficult challenge.
Website:
Most missing / incomplete:
Learn page; needs to be a go-to place for a newcomer to Fortran to get started programming with Fortran, with practical steps to follow.
Fix Cray compiler listing -> Cray (HPE)
Post to Fortran 90 List <COMP-FORTRAN-90@JISCMAIL.AC.UK>
Compilers:
Gary: Flang, Fortran frontend to LLVM. Currently has a working parser (and something more), but doesn’t compile code yet. Supports most of F2003, and F2008. Nvidia, ARM, AMD biggest supporters. Needs help from community developers.
Ondrej: LFortran, interactive Fortran compiler based on LLVM; next steps: Get users, implement features to be able to compile F95-level Fortran projects. Needs help from community developers.
Check compiler list from ACM Fortran Forum
FortranCon 2020:
Arjen: Good abstract submissions so far, there’s room for more.
Brad submitted abstract about fpm (ask Alfio to move fpm abstract from junior to selected presentations)
Plans to submit abstracts on LFortran (Ondrej), stdlib (ask Jeremie if he’d like to do it) and/or fortran-lang as a project.
Ondrej: I edited this post to add links and a few missing items
Hello Milan Curcic and all the Fortran Monthly Call: May 2020 participants,
I am Tomohiro Degawa. I host a modern Fortran local user group in Japan.
May I translate this Call notes into Japanese and introduce it on my blog?
There are (or should be) many Fortran users in Japan, but the Fortran-lang project is not well known in Japan yet.
I believe that the number of Fortran users in Japan who know the Fortran-lang project will increase by introducing those recent activities.
After the first call, we realized it would’ve been useful if we recorded the call and posted it on Youtube so that others can watch/listen if they missed it or couldn’t make the time. Of course, all this assuming that most agree to recording the call. I hope you join us next month for the second call.