A major benefit of the Fortran language is the large amount of pre-existing code available for use in project development. Much of this code is freely available in source format from a variety of Internet sites. The remainder of this article demonstrates the process of building a subroutine library from a downloaded source package. The screen shots used in this section were taken on an Intel processor based Macintosh running Apple's Mac OS 10.5 and Absoft's Pro Fortran 10.1 development tools. However, the procedure outlined below is identical on AMD or Intel processor Linux systems using Absoft's Fortran 95 10.1, on AMD or Intel processor Microsoft Windows systems using Absoft's Pro Fortran 10.1, and on PowerPC Macintoshes running Mac OS 10.5 and Absoft's Pro Fortran 9.5.

Obtaining the Source

This example demonstrates building a subroutine library named VFFTpack. This library provides a vectorized package of Fortran subprograms for the fast Fourier transform of multiple real sequences. The source code package for this library is available as a compressed tar archive from the NetLib Repository at http://www.netlib.org. After downloading the library, Linux and Mac OS users can extract the source code using their system's tar utility program. Windows users will need use a third party program such as Winzip or PowerArchiver to extract the source files.

Creating an AbsoftTools Project

After launching the AbsoftTools program, the user is presented with the following screen.

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