[SciPy-Dev] Fortran cleanup advice?

[Pauli Virtanen]

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 21:29:35 +0800, Ralf Gommers wrote:
> Most warnings are from Fortran code, I count six types (examples at end
> of mail):
> 1. Nonconforming tab character. This one's straightforward, change tabs
> to spaces.
> 2. Unused variable.
> 3. Obsolete ASSIGN statement.
> 4. Label defined but not used.
> 5. Obsolete assigned GOTO statement
> 6. 'foo' uninitialized.

I'm not sure whether fixing these warnings pays off:

a) I doubt fixing these warnings will help us spot any bugs. Most of the
   offending code is likely upstream code (= ancient Fortran libraries),
   and for the most part, they are solid.

   At least the warnings (3) and (5) are spurious. Computed gotos are
   not an obsolete feature in Fortran-77...

b) In the worst case, stylistic fixes such as the above can cause errors.

c) Moreover, such changes clutter up "svn/git blame" needlessly.
   Sometimes, it is useful to want to know what functional Scipy-specific
   modifications (= bug-fixes) have been made.

d) If it ain't broke, don't fix it. 

Because of these, I would avoid doing purely stylistic fixes to upstream 
code.

Scipy-specific code is of course a different matter -- warnings from code 
written by Scipy authors should be fixed.

-- 
Pauli Virtanen