> On Fri, 30 May 2008 10:05:21 +0100, Thomas Robitaille wrote:
>

>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> I've been programming in fortran 90/95 for over 5 years now, and I enjoy
>> very much the new modular and object orientated features that fortran
>> now includes.
>>
>> In fact, it seems to me that fortran is at a stage where it should
>> become easier to start exchanging full modules rather than individual
>> routines (as in numerical recipes for example). For instance, I've
>> developed for my purposes a module which defines vectors and all the
>> operations associated with them. Of course many other people have done
>> this too. I've also written a couple of modules which have interfaces
>> defined for f77 libraries (e.g. PGPLOT or CFITSIO).
>>
>> I have come across various websites where programmers make available the
>> routines that they use. However, in some cases it is hard to know
>> whether this code is being maintained, etc., and how popular it is.
>>
>> As far as I am aware, there does not appear to be any large centralized
>> repository for fortran 90/95 modules, where users could leave comments
>> about the modules, rate then by e.g. code quality, speed, etc... I think
>> this would be invaluable. So some kind of mix between the CPAN archive
>> for perl, and sourceforge for complete programs or libraries.
>>
>> First, am I missing the obvious - does such a repository exist? If not,
>> do others agree that this would be useful? I don't think I have the
>> experience to set up such a system from scratch, but I would certainly
>> be happy to be involved in helping in some way.
>>
>> Would such a system be difficult to set up? Are there existing
>> frameworks that have been developed for other languages that can be used
>> for this?

>
> To cover the obvious, there is no equivalent to CPAN for fortran. There
> seems to be a goodly amount of fortran on the web, but there's nothing with
> the centrality and breadth like CPAN, so I think you're stuck having to
> find your libraries with the help a search engine, and when you run into
> trouble, post here for refinements.
>
> I think you'll have trouble trying to find volunteers for an effort that
> takes many men-years. Maybe a scaled-down addition to the fortran wiki
> instead?