# Fortran 77

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fortran-77/64584>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [August 10, 2006, 4:32am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fortran-77/64584 "2006-08-10T04:32:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![farfignugen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/f17d59/32.png) [@farfignugen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/farfignugen)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2006, 4:32am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fortran-77/64584/1 "2006-08-10T04:32:49Z")

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I just happened upon the the footnote on page 187 of the Pickaxe book  
about how RDoc can document Fortran 77. Does Dave T. write a lot  
of Fortran code?

I had to ask.

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**Author:** ![farfignugen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/f17d59/32.png) [@farfignugen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/farfignugen)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2006, 4:47am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fortran-77/64584/2 "2006-08-10T04:47:50Z")

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On Aug 9, 2006, at 22:32, Chris G. wrote:

> I just happened upon the the footnote on page 187 of the Pickaxe  
> book about how RDoc can document Fortran 77. Does Dave T. write  
> a lot of Fortran code?

No, but the NASA folks do, and they submitted a patch 🙂

Dave

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**Author:** ![farfignugen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/f17d59/32.png) [@farfignugen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/farfignugen)\
**Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 2:10pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fortran-77/64584/3 "2006-08-15T14:10:34Z")

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Dave T. wrote:

> Dave  
> NASA still uses FORTRAN _77_? Man, _that’s_ frightening … does their  
> patch work with the “new” dialects like 90 and 95?

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**Author:** ![farfignugen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/f17d59/32.png) [@farfignugen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/farfignugen)\
**Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 2:10pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fortran-77/64584/4 "2006-08-15T14:10:35Z")

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On Thu, 10 Aug 2006, M. Edward (Ed) Borasky wrote:

> > Dave  
> > NASA still uses FORTRAN _77_? Man, _that’s_ frightening … does their patch  
> > work with the “new” dialects like 90 and 95?

so do we - TONS. the thing with g77 compiled code, however, is that the  
abi  
is available to ruby/dl - this is no small advantage over f90 because i  
allows  
one to **only** write routines in fortran - no top level code.

-a

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**Author:** ![farfignugen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/f17d59/32.png) [@farfignugen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/farfignugen)\
**Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 2:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fortran-77/64584/5 "2006-08-15T14:16:30Z")

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Chris G. wrote:

> I just happened upon the the footnote on page 187 of the Pickaxe book  
> about how RDoc can document Fortran 77. Does Dave T. write a lot of  
> Fortran code?

Actually my officemate and I hacked that crude Fortran/90/ parser  
into RDoc one afternoon (100 LOC, fragile regexps) and Dave accepted  
it into the fold.

Our group never really found much use for it, and so we didn’t  
pursue developing it. The GFD Dennou Club, however, has created  
a (robust, polished) version that I believe Ryan D. is trying  
to work into core or split out as a gem – see

[http://dennou-h.gfd-dennou.org/library/dcmodel/doc/rdoc-dennou/](http://dennou-h.gfd-dennou.org/library/dcmodel/doc/rdoc-dennou/)

Later,

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**Author:** ![farfignugen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/f17d59/32.png) [@farfignugen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/farfignugen)\
**Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 2:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fortran-77/64584/6 "2006-08-15T14:16:35Z")

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On Aug 11, 2006, at 1:50 AM, Bil K. wrote:

> Actually my officemate and I hacked that crude Fortran/90/ parser  
> into RDoc one afternoon (100 LOC, fragile regexps) and Dave accepted  
> it into the fold.
> 
> Our group never really found much use for it, and so we didn’t  
> pursue developing it. The GFD Dennou Club, however, has created  
> a (robust, polished) version that I believe Ryan D. is trying  
> to work into core or split out as a gem – see

Thanks for the explanation. It does make sense now.

–  
For blocks are better cleft with wedges,  
Than tools of sharp or subtle edges,  
And dullest nonsense has been found  
By some to be the most profound.  
-Samuel Butler,