Abstract

Even though it is one of the oldest programming languages around, fortran is still the language of choice in much of the scientific community. In fact, its popularity has increased with the recent availability of first class compilers and fast floating point support for personal computers. By sticking closely to the fortran-77 standard and making use of a device-independent graphics protocol, it is relatively easy to write sophisticated programs that can be executed on anything from large supercomputers to desk-top microcomputers. However, when dealing with large programs (>10,000 lines of code) with large data arrays (greater than a megabyte), limitations in personal computer hardware and software need to be addressed. A new optical analysis program of this size is currently running, with almost no modification in source code, on not only DEC VAX minicomputers but also personal computers based on both the Intel and Motorola microprocessors.

© 1986 Optical Society of America