[esp-r] ESPr validation with gfortran/gcc4

[Scott Bucking]

Hi,

I found this on a mailing list from three years ago:

http://lists.strath.ac.uk/archives/esp-r/2006/000125.html

--------
> - When you mention numerical differences with the new GNU F77 compiler,
> than this can only mean that building under gcc-g77 version 4
> has not been
> tested and is strongly discouraged? This is a very
> fundamental issue and
> should be highlighted during the build procedure.

The cross-platform testing testing mentioned above has been performed
with the gcc4/gfortran compiler set and we observed as-yet-unexplained
and non-trivial numerical differences compared with gcc3/g77.  Until the
cause of these differences are diagnosed we recommend the use of
gcc3/g77.  Our general impression is that the gfortran side of
gcc4/gfortran is not yet quite a fully functional fortran compiler.
--------

Has anyone recently performed validation on more recent toolchains
under a Linux plaform (gcc4.3/gfortran)?

I tend to keep my system updated, and am wondering if a separate
version of gcc3/g77 is still necessary to avoid truncation/numerical
discrepancies between compilers.

Cheers,

Scott Bucking