On 06/22/2011 07:58 PM, Dale wrote:
[...] Mine never had fortran in it at all. I still don't really know what fortran is.
It's a programming language. You know, C, C++, stuff like that. Except that it's a zombie-relict from the 1950's that refuses to die because people still programming in it are too lazy to learn a proper, more modern language :-P
When you enable the fortran USE flag for GCC, you are telling it to compile and install the GNU Fortran compiler. Sometimes USE flags can have more dramatic effects than just enabling some extra functionality; in this case for example, a whole compiler and supporting runtime libraries are built and installed.
