#2099: Cactus requires Fortran ----------------------+----------------------------------------------------- Reporter: sbrandt | Owner: Type: defect | Status: reopened Priority: minor | Milestone: Component: Cactus | Version: development version Resolution: | Keywords: ----------------------+-----------------------------------------------------
Comment (by eschnett):
The reason for not requiring Fortran is that some systems do not have a Fortran compiler, and since all of the flesh and basic thorns are (were) written in C, requiring a Fortran compiler was an unnecessary requirement that would prevent people from using Cactus.
At that time, there were many different operating systems (not just Linux, Windows, and MacOS), and may different C compilers. GCC was not necessary available on a Unix system. There was also no free Fortran 90 compiler in existence. Hence installing a Fortran compiler was a real obstacle, in particular annoying if one didn't have any Fortran code. Consequencly, using Cactus without Fortran was working out of the box, unless one used Fortran thorns.