On 16.03.2005, at 20:57, Stephen Walton wrote:

Well, how much is their time worth is then the question? If they can afford

Not exactly. The first question they ask is how much is the code worth that requires them to buy a Fortran license or to install g77. They might then well choose my competitor's code that doesn't have such requirements. It doesn't help if I tell them that my code doesn't require Fortran at all, but that it relies on a library that can't be installed without a Fortran compiler.

an SGI workstation, I'd think they could afford a copy of SGI's compiler,

From memory, a compiler license is about half the price of a workstation. Depending on particular circumstances (special offers, campus licenses, etc.) the prices can be lower.

I might also point out, not to be argumentative, that the real difficulty is installing gcc. The extra effort to install g77 once gcc is working is very small. Are the users you mention doing without C as well?

I guess some do. On all the workstations I have ever used, there was a minimal C compiler for recompiling the kernel, which was also good enough for installing software, though not necessarily a pleasure for development.

Back when I was administering HP-UX, I found a community supported archive with contributed pre-compiled software in HP's package format. Is there a similar thing in the SGI community?

I don't know. I have used SGI machines for only two years (ten years ago), and in an environment where compilers and development tools were considered necessary. Konrad. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------- Konrad Hinsen Laboratoire Leon Brillouin, CEA Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France Tel.: +33-1 69 08 79 25 Fax: +33-1 69 08 82 61 E-Mail: khinsen@cea.fr ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -------