PC Fortran (Was: Microsoft open sources GWBASIC

[Eric Smith]

On Sat, May 30, 2020 at 3:27 PM Fred Cisin via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
wrote:

> >> One reaason why you don't hear much about that is because the first
> >> version of Microsoft Fortran for the PC wasn't real great.
> >> It was written in Microsoft Pascal.
>
> On Sat, 30 May 2020, John Foust via cctalk wrote:
> > Really!
> > How does this connect to Microsoft's FORTRAN-80 for CP/M circa 1977?
>
> unrelated product, with no apparent connections, that I'm aware of.  The
> 8080/Z80 FORTRAN-80 would have been a better starting point!
> Bob Wallace wrote the original Microsoft Pascal; I don't know who wrote
> the Fortran, other than being told that it was written in Microsoft
> Pascal, and to avoid the run-time library.
>

I assume you mean that Microsoft Fortran for the PC was written in Pascal.

I did some reverse-engineering of the Microsoft FORTRAN-80 compiler, and it
appears to be hand-written in 8080 assembly.

On the other hand, Intel also had a FORTRAN-80 product, which was unrelated
to Microsoft FORTRAN-80. Intel FOTRAN-80 ran on their MDS development
systems under the ISIS-II operating system, and the compiler was written in
PL/M.