Fortran newsletter: December 2021

December 01, 2021

Authors: Milan Curcic, Sebastian Ehlert, Alexis Perry-Holby

Welcome to the December 2021 edition of the monthly Fortran newsletter. The newsletter comes out at the beginning of every month and details Fortran news from the previous month.

fortran-lang.org

Here’s what’s new and ongoing in the fortran-lang.org repo:

#348: Fix typo in author field

Work in progress

#347 (WIP): Fortran Intrinsics
#201 (WIP): Internationalization for fortran-lang

Let us know if you have any suggestions for the website and its content. We welcome any new contributors to the website and the tutorials page in particular - see the contributor guide for how to get started.

Fortran Standard Library

Here’s what’s new in stdlib:

#558: Pin specific fpm version
#556: fix some FORD links
#494: Add testing module to allow better structuring of test suites
#562: Minor update pure/elemental in string_type module
#565: Make support for quadruple precision optional
#566: Create a call for reviewers pull request template
#578: Update error in case fypp preprocessor is not found
#579: Add module for handling version information of stdlib

Work in progress

#581 (WIP): Add routines for saving/loading arrays in npy format
#580 (WIP): Add terminal and color escape sequences
#573 (WIP): Revised Hash functions incorporating changes in the main Stdlib repository.
#552 (WIP): fixed bug in stringlist
#536 (WIP): Fix conversion warnings
#520 (WIP): [stdlib_io] add disp(display variable values formatted).
#517 (WIP): adding SPEC_TEMPLATE.md #504
#514 (WIP): pop, drop & get with basic range feature for stringlist
#500 (WIP): Selection algorithms
#499 (WIP): [stdlib_linalg] matrix property checks
#498 (WIP): [stdlib_math] add arg/argd/argpi
#491 (WIP): Stdlib linked list
#488 (WIP): [stdlib_math] add is_close routines.
#473 (WIP): Error stop improvements
#363 (WIP): Sorting string’s characters according to their ASCII values
#353 (WIP): Initial checkin for a module for tolerant comparison of reals
#286 (WIP): Probability Distribution and Statistical Functions – Beta Distribution Module
#278 (WIP): Probability Distribution and Statistical Functions – Gamma Distribution Module
#276 (WIP): Probability Distribution and Statistical Functions – Exponential Distribution Module
#273 (WIP): Probability Distribution and Statistical Functions – Normal Distribution Module
#189 (WIP): Initial implementation of COO / CSR sparse format

Please help improve stdlib by testing and reviewing pull requests!

The candidate for file system operations to be included in stdlib is being developed by @MarDiehl and @arjenmarkus in this repository. Please try it out and let us know how it works, if there are any issues, or if the API can be improved.

Fortran Package Manager

Here’s what’s new in fpm:

v0.5.0: Alpha release update
#598: Update README.md compiler, archiver, & link flags
#569: Add workflow for continuous delivery
#602: fix(fpm_compiler): intel windows release flag was incorrect
#607: Repair –list option and correct obsolete descriptions of the –list option
#612: Fix modules listing (for install)
#613: Add: critical section to mkdir in backend
#616: Add: workflow to make installer on push and release
#614: Bump version to 0.5.0
setup-fpm#7: Fix Latest Option

Work in progress

#622 (WIP): Cleanup the backend output
#608 (WIP): –env switch lets you specify the prefix of the compiler-related environment variables
#539 (WIP): Add parent packages into dependency tree
#498 (WIP): Compiler flags profiles

fpm is still in early development and we need as much help as we can get. Here’s how you can help today:

Use it and let us know what you think! Read the fpm packaging guide to learn how to build your package with fpm, and the manifest reference to learn what are all the things that you can specify in the fpm.toml file.
Browse existing fpm packages on the fortran-lang website
Browse the open issues and see if you can help implement any fixes or features.
Adapt your Fortran package for fpm and submit it to the Registry.
Improve the documentation.

The short-term goal of fpm is to make development and installation of Fortran packages with dependencies easier. Its long term goal is to build a rich and decentralized ecosystem of Fortran packages and create a healthy environment in which new open source Fortran projects are created and published with ease.

Compilers

Flang

Recent development updates:

OpenMP
- Use the ultimate symbol in a call to the IsPointer function
- Add parsing/sema/serialization for ‘bind’ clause.
FIR
- Add base of the FIR to LLVM IR pass
- Add various FIR to LLVM IR conversion patterns:
  - fir.unreachable
  - fir.insert_on_range
  - fir.zero_bits
  - fir.select and fir.select_rank
  - fir.extract_value and fir.insert_value
  - types - fir.box, fir.logical, fir.char, fir.ptr
  - fir.box_rank, fir.box_addr, fir.box_dims, fir.box_elesize
  - fir.convert
  - fir.call
  - fir.store and fir.load
- Add substr information to fircg.ext_embox and fircg.ext_rebox operations
- Use notifyMatchFailure in fir.zero_bits conversion
- Restrict array type on fir.insert_on_range
- Add test for FIR types conversion
- Use contralized values for indexing box
- Add complex operations conversion from FIR LLVM IR
- Add TargetRewrite pass and TargetRewrite: Rewrite COMPLEX values
Runtime
- Read environment variables directly
flang-omp-report
- Removed unnecessary comments in flang-omp-report plugin tests
- Remove the loop workarounds for nowait clause
- Add flang-omp-report summarising script
Checks for pointers to intrinsic functions
Fold SPREAD
Improve error message for misuse of NULL(mold) as data statement constant
Fix crash on “call system_clock(count_max=j)”
Fix combined folding of FINDLOC/MAXLOC/MINLOC
Implement GET_ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE(VALUE)
Remove builder that takes SSA value instead of Attribute on ExtractValueOp, InsetValueOp, and InsertOnRangeOp
Remove getModel<Fortran::ISO::CFI_dim_t> in DescriptorModel.h
Set the addendum when establishing pointer section in descriptor
Fix error in characteristics check at procedure pointer assignment
Initial parsing/sema for ‘align’ clause
Don’t reference non-invariant symbols in shape expressions
Make subscript list argument a nullable pointer
Distinguish error/warning cases for bad jumps into constructs
Fix folding of EPSILON()

Call notes are recorded and available upon request here. Please contact Alexis Perry-Holby at aperry@lanl.gov for document access.

LFortran

32 Merge Requests merged in November 2021
Support for same name interface and subroutine/function
Compile-time evaluation for bit intrinsics
Implement the repeat and shape intrinsics
Variadic support for min and max intrinsics
Implement the scalar random_number function
Fixes and improved error message for read and write statements
Support the final, intrinsic, and private attributes
Implement the ieee_arithmetic intrinsic module
Support for the abstract class
Support for assignment(=) on use statement

We are looking for new contributors. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you are interested. We will help you get up to speed.

Events

Sebastian Ehlert presented the Fortran Package Manager at the PackagingCon 2021 conference. You can watch the recording below:
Recordings of all FortranCon 2021 presentations are now available to view in the FortranCon YouTube Channel. Enjoy!
We had our 20th Fortran Monthly call on November 15. You can watch the recording below:

As usual, subscribe to the mailing list and/or join the Discourse to stay tuned with the future meetings.

Contributors

We thank everybody who contributed to fortran-lang in the past month by commenting in any of these repositories: