[Matrix-SIG] Pyfort-3.0

[Paul F. Dubois]

Pyfort 3.0, the Python-Fortran connection tool, is available at
ftp://ftp-icf.llnl.gov/pub/python/Pyfort-3.0.tgz.
Documentation is included.

News:

Pyfort uses Distutils (www.python.org/sigs/distutils-sig)  both to install
itself and to build and install extensions built with Pyfort.

There are many new features to control the behavior of the tool, including
provisions for optional automatic transposing, reversed-shape Fortran
arrays, and valued scalars.

A valued scalar is an integer argument to a Fortran routine that determines
all or part of the shape of another argument. This fact can now be declared
in the input. For example, if Fortran routine foo has arguments foo (n, x),
where x is a real array of length n, you have the option to declare this as:

subroutine foo (n, x)
    integer n = size(x)
    real x(n)
end

(size is the F90 intrinsic, and can take a second argument to indicate the
dimension if x has more than one)

Then the Python user would call foo as foo(x), and not need to specifiy the
redundant information that n is x's length.

Some persons do not want any of the features mentioned. They may rest
assured that declaring all arguments intent(inout) will result in what some
have called a "raw" interface.

REFERENCE:

<P><A HREF="http://dubois.simplenet.com/python">Pyfort 3.0</A> - Fortran /
Python Connection Tool.  (11-Jan-2000)