Blog written by David Sayers, NAG Principal Technical Consultant
As I am a Windows user, I am able to make use of the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for the compiler that is provided to our Windows users. We call this IDE ‘NAG Fortran Builder’. One of the nice features of this IDE is its ease of use with the prevailing NAG libraries. To do this the user normally specifies a ‘NAG Library Project’ at creation time; thereafter the relevant settings are made to the compiler, so that either the Windows 64 bit or Windows 32-bit DLLs are used.
At points in the NAG cycle a situation arises where the latest Fortran Builder is released. It automatically picks up the then current NAG libraries. Information about these libraries is embedded within Fortran Builder. This information includes documentation, interface blocks and example program information, all of which is mark-dependent. Subsequently a new NAG Library is released and so our Windows users would want to use the latest library from Fortran Builder. Some guidance is given on this within the relevant Users’ Note. This note attempts to gather together and expand on this information.
New Fortran Builder Projects
In both cases, if you build your project in Debug mode (the default), it is not possible to use the Undefined variables option which is accessible on the Fortran Compiler / Runtime Check tab of Project Settings. This is because the NAG Library was not compiled with this option.
Also in both cases, should you want to link to the NAG Library in all future Console Application projects tick the Set as Default option.
Please note that if you had decided to set these new library settings as defaults and you subsequently form a new ‘NAG_Library Application’ project by mistake then numerous warning messages will be generated on compilation. This is because of incompatibilities with the interface blocks. You may recover from this by unticking the ‘Use the NAG Fortran Library’ box under Project Settings/Basic Settings. If Fortran Builder is unable to find a supported NAG Library then it won’t let you create a NAG Library Application project.
Existing Fortran Builder Projects
If a Fortran Builder project already exists and has linked to the NAG Library then the chances are that it will be a ‘NAG Library Application’ project. If you still have the Mark 23 libraries on your system then these are the libraries that will be accessed and used.
- unticking the ‘Use the NAG Fortran Library’ box under Project Settings/Basic Settings.
- Now repeat steps b) to g) or b) to h) for the relevant library as described above.
Updating the NAG Help file available from Fortran Builder
You will require administrator privileges to do this, and you may well decide not to tamper in this manner, but it is possible to access the Mark 24 Help file directly from Fortran Builder. The process involves copying the help file provided with your library, nagdoc_fl24.chm into the bin directory of Fortran Builder. This location is typically C:\Program Files (x86)\NAG\EFBuilder 5.3.1\bin . We suggest you rename the existing help file nagdoc_fl23.chm to xnagdoc_fl23.chm. Now copy nagdoc_fl24.chm from the library into the .\bin directory and trick Fortran Builder by renaming nagdoc_fl24.chm to nagdoc_fl23.chm.
Updating the example program templates
Any tampering with the Fortran Builder files to access the Mark 24 example templates is even less recommended than the procedure for the documentation outline above. The relevant directories are below C:\Program Files (x86)\NAG\EFBuilder 5.3.1\bin\resource\fldll234m.