Running FTN95 under Linux

Though FTN95 currently has no native compiler for Linux you still can use FTN95 under Linux. Funny but for that you just need to install one of programs with alcohol-related names Wine or Bottles and your life in minutes becomes a bit more colorful. OpenGL works too without delays. Scary rumors about some possible restrictions on graphics size or memory limits or absent fonts were wrong. Tahoma and Courier were indeed initially missing but fixable in two clicks. The only differences with Windows i noticed were that a minor amount of controls in Clearwin programs were shifted left or right few spaces, but that was probably my own design fault.

This desktop looks after installation of FTN95 in Ubuntu like this: Recognising something familiar?

Here what i have done step by step. No searching, downloading or purchasing anything needed:

1. Installation of Wine with Winetricks. Type in Terminal: sudo apt-get install wine winetricks -y
2. Start winetricks. In the windows select 'default wineprefix' and click OK. In the next window, select 'Run winecfg' and click OK. You can then configure the version of Windows you want Wine to mimic by selecting the option from the Windows Version drop-down and clicking OK. Click on 'Install a font', find in the table Tahoma and Courier and click OK
3. Copying FTN95 installer into Downloads folder - Linux sees Windows files like their own. Switching to Downlods: cd ~/Downloads
4. Run original or update installation of FTN95: wine ftn95_update.exe
5. Run your code: wine yourcode or from desktop menu call the debugger SDBG and run your code from there or start Plato and run or debug your code from there

15 minutes total

I just imagined how our computer world and general life would be better without this re-seller of software Bill Gates

To compile instead of FTN95 YourProg.f90 you will need to write: wine FTN95 YourProg.f90

and instead of SLINK64 Yourprog.obj YourOther.obj YourOther.dll you will also need to add wine in front: wine SLINK64 Yourprog.obj YourOther.obj YourOther.dll

If you will be experiencing conflict while compiling (first conflict i met so far, and only when i compiled files) like this

0264:err:module:import_dll Loading library OPENGL32.dll (which is needed by L'C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Silverfrost\\FTN95\\CLEARWIN64.DLL') failed (error c000007b).

You will need to copy opengl32.dll from your Windows/system32 directory to the same Windows/system32 in your Linux wine installation (to get Wine installation type in Terminal this: cd ~/.wine/drive_c)

Similar to OpenGL32 conflict was with shell32.dll. Just substitute it same way.

Hacks... 😃

Such hacks would not be needed if FTN95 was natively made for Linux. The only serious Fortran use currently is in the supercomputers area where two major languages are C/C++ and Fortran. And in that field Linux : Windows ratio currently is 499 : 1.

Try Linux Mint or Ubuntu. Start to install it via VirtualBox on your Windows computer (with the help of Youtube) and then just move to Linux completely because there is no point to have this garbage Windows and pay and pay and pay for it to the morons. And how many days you lost upgrading Windows? Or how much time of your work was lost due to they forced your PC to shut down?

You will love Linux eventually

A fascinating statistic, that 1 in 500. I wonder what the relationship between Windows PCs and all other OS types might be - and if that in some way explains why that bad guy (whose name I forget, but who looks like the villain in the film 'Despicable Me') just happens to be so rich?

Personally, if anyone at Silverfrost has a lot of spare time on their hands, I suggest that FTN95 for Android would be useful, especially as Chrome handles tablets and smartphones so much better than Windows does, and for many uses they are amply fast enough.

Eddie

Do you mean this guy? 😃

By the way Android is a just nice shell on top of Linux.

We also can run Windows on top of Linux. I just found even simpler way to completely replicate how i worked in Windows so i can not believe that i'm sitting in Linux and compile and run Windows programs absolutely no different way i did there after i installed all my favorite tools for Windows into Windows shell. No 'wine FTN95 yourcode.for' like i wrote above are needed, no 'wine slink64...' i just do everything exactly like i've done in Windows withthe same look and feel AND meantime control the supercomputer or run multi-core simulations in Linux. This is even better than the Virtual box which ran Linux under Windows host and sometimes crashed when i ran Linux simulations. Headache on VitualBox also was to copy files from Linux to Windows while now all files are shared like they are own for both systems.

So what's needed to do for that? You can not believe but exactly nothing, just do 'cd ~/.wine/drive_c': this is virtual Windows directory so treat it exactly like you do in Windows, install there everything usual way and use like Windows. Commands in Terminal are also like you have done with Windows, not in Linux.

Stunning resemblance, isn't it?

My first recommendation is to try other version of Linux than Ubuntu. It works, and it is better than Windows and even our supercomputer OS, still it looks a bit abandoned lately. Devs of Ubuntu need to polish GUI interface to be shiny like all modern cellphones, but they either do not. We can do that themselves but it takes time to find what you want. Canonical who controls Ubuntu pays now more attention to corporate world, not to Desktop. Bare Ubuntu is very stable, even if by some reason everything else crash, the Fortran codes are rock solid and running. And no one harass you to reboot like it was with the damn Windows. But a lot of people switch lately to use other distros spewing dissatisfaction with Ubuntu. I will try Linux Mint next, it is same Debian derivative like Ubuntu.

As usually i recommend also Double Commander under Linux and Total Commander under Windows ( or under Wine in Linux ). Without this program which started with Norton Commander i can not use PC at all for all these 40 years.

UPDATE Definitely Mint is the way to go, never touch Ubuntu unless you just plan to run the codes on it. Problem with Ubuntu - it has no immune system and due to that is very fragile. As a result you will gradually break it and will not repair. Mint though was developed taking stability into its design. You will always return exactly into the state before you broke it because it leaves automatically the complete way points. And it is #1 user friendly Linux among all of them. And pretty stylish too.

UPDATE2 Linux Mint is simply amazing. You are in Linux and you are in Windows at the same time. You click on FTN95 file like it is Windows and despite all the differences the Clearwin app works same way. Just install Wine+Winetricks. Quality products. Even texts under it sharp and vibrant, no conflicts with 10bit HDR colors like it always was with Windows. Almost all your Windows apps work.