Cross Compiling C and Fortran

From assela Pathirana
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Recently I had to mix two large models written in C and Fortran (95 standard) to build a single monolithic program. In theory cross compilation is easy -- in practice its far from it. Your run off the mill 'hello world' implemented in C and called from Fortran (or vice versa) is one thing, but marrying off two large programs (numerous code files in each) written in two languages is a whole different story. Following is an account of my experience:

Summary
What worked for me 1) Sun Studio 11 works brilliantly. It's only available on Linux & Solaris platforms (not on Windows), but that is what got me though. (Free as in beer) 2) Intel compilers are also good. But, getting them to work effectively is a real pain. Download multiple gigabyte Microsoft Visual Studio 90 day trial from Microsoft (Even if you don't want to use their compilers!), then download C and Fortran compiler trial versions from Intel!! 3) Eclipse CDT/Photran (no that is not a spelling mistake!) is nice. But, you must know your way around configuring eclipse -- its a massive system that includes everything plus the Kitchen Sink. But, the good news is it is Free and Open Source (Free as in speech).

First the Theory