Making g77 easier to configure, port, build, and install, either
as a single-system compiler or as a cross-compiler, would be
very useful.
libg2c) should improve portability as well as
produce more optimal code.
Further, g77 and the new library should
conspire to simplify naming of externals, such as by removing unnecessarily
added underscores, and to reduce/eliminate the possibility of naming
conflicts, while making debugger more straightforward.
Also, it should
make multi-language applications more feasible, such as by providing
Fortran intrinsics that get Fortran unit numbers given C FILE *
descriptors.
g77 should produce the equivalent
of a gcc `main(argc, argv)' function when it compiles a
main program unit, instead of compiling something that must be
called by a library
implementation of main().
This would do many useful things such as
provide more flexibility in terms of setting up exception handling,
not requiring programmers to start their debugging sessions with
breakpoint MAIN__ followed by run, and so on.
g77 currently imposes
overly strict alignment requirements, due to the back end, but it
would be useful for Fortran and C programmers to be able to override
these recommendations as long as they don't violate the actual
processor requirements.
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