Michael J. Steinkamp writes:
> ...Fortran Power Station 4.0 (F90) compiler....
> My program accesses hundreds of files as it runs and the problem is that before
> the program can finish, I get an error that says I've run out of disk space.
> If I reboot the machine immediately after this error I see that I still have
> plenty of disk space left (650Mb out of a 2Gb hard drive) - this is plenty for
> this problem....
> Are there any F90 methods or different compiler options...
> If this is peculiar to Windows, would I be able to alleviate the
> problem by partitioning my disk and using Linux as my OS?
I'm having trouble really telling what the problem is from the data
given. There are lots of possibilities. Your subject mentions
fragmentation, which I suppose might be one, though it wouldn't be
high on my list. I might be more suspicious of things like running
out of swap space or other Windows resources, possibly with a
misleading error message.
You mention the possibility of using Linux. I happen to think there
is much to be said for doing that (I'm typing this email from Linux,
which is my primary development platform these days). But without
better understanding your problem, I can't give any honest evaluation
of whether that is likely to solve it. Might. Might not. Might
also bring new issues if your code uses non-portable MS Powerstation
constructs.
But if you are even thinking of using Linux, I'd think you should also
consider less drastic changes. The compiler you are using is old and
has not been officially supported for years. It has a pretty bad
reputation. I gave up on my attempts to use it, and I'm far from the
only one. You might well be hitting one of its many bugs.
Contrary to what sometimes seems to be widespread unstated
assumption, there do exist compilers for Windows other than the
Microsoft compilers. (Indeed, the Microsoft one no longer exists as a
currently sold and supported product). You might want to consider one
of the several high-quality competing compilers for the Windows
environment. I'll refrain from making a particular recomendation
(though others on this list might), but I'll just note that there
are several good choices. See the Win32 compiler comparison at
<http://www.polyhedron.co.uk/>
Again, I can't guarantee that switching compilers would solve your
problem, but it's probably a good thing to get away from the MS PS4
compiler anyway - and theres at least a reasonable change that it
might solve your problem.
P.S. Of course, feel free to experiment with Linux. I did and ended
up moving to it (though in my case it was from Sun's Solaris instead
of from Windows). If you are looking for an "excuse" to do that, go
ahead. But if you are just looking for a fix to your immediate
problem, that seems a bit drastic.
--
Richard Maine | Good judgment comes from experience;
[log in to unmask] | experience comes from bad judgment.
| -- Mark Twain
