f77 on MIPS cpu's

[John D. McCalpin]

In reference to my previous posting, here are some specific questions
that I have about the MIPS f77 compiler.

1. Does the MIPS compiler support array bounds checking?	f77 -C
	It is very difficult to use the IRIS 3000 as a 
	code development platform without this!
2. Does the MIPS compiler support execution-time profiling?	f77 -pg
	It is inconvenient to use the IRIS 3000 as a 
	code development platform without this.
3. Does the MIPS compiler have a RELIABLE interface to dbx?
	The SVS f77 compiler does not do well with multi-dimensional
	arrays or passed arguments - it often gives the address 
	of a passed veriable instead of its value.  dbx also
	fails (core dumps) without warning on many codes.
4. Does the MIPS compiler have argument checking in its intrinsic
	function libraries?
	The SVS f77 allows all sorts of wrong answers to be generated
	because of this "feature".
5. Does the MIPS compiler actually support CORRECT IEEE arithmetic?
	(including rounding, sufficient guard bits, and robust
	intrinsics)  The SVS compiler fails many of the tests
	in the PARANOIA floating-point test suite.
6. Does the MIPS compiler have a good optimizer? 
	The SVS compiler does not even know how to remove loop-
	invariant code.  The SUN f77 compiler can produce twice 
	the performance from my codes on equivalent hardware.
	(SUN 3/160 w/Weitek fpa vs. IRIS 3030 w/Weitak fpa).

Thanks for any help you can provide....

John D. McCalpin
mccalpin at nu.cs.fsu.edu	(listed in host tables)
mccalpin at masig1.ocean.fsu.edu	(requires nameserver to access)
mccalpin at fsu	(BITNET or MFENET)
SCRI::MCCALPIN	(SPAN)