Welcome to the Compaq Visual Fortran Product Overview

The Compaq® Visual Fortran Product Overview provides a tutorial introduction to Compaq Visual Fortran (including Compaq Array Visualizer).

You can view the Product Overview on Windows® 2000, Windows NT®, Windows Me, Windows 98, and Windows 95 systems. The Product Overview is a slide show prepared using Microsoft® PowerPoint® 97 that you can view either with Microsoft PowerPoint 97 (or later) or its free viewer, Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer 97 (or later).

Note: The Product Overview slide show was not revised for Version 6.6. It describes features up to Visual Fortran 6.5 and Array Visualizer 1.5. For a list of features introduced since Visual Fortran Version 6.5, see the online release notes or Visual Fortran HTML Help documentation section (available as a link from the Visual Fortran Home page) "New Features for Compaq Visual Fortran Version 6.6" and the 6.5A new features in the section "New Features for Compaq Visual Fortran Version 6.5 and 6.5A". Similarly, for Array Visualizer features added since Version 1.5, see the online release notes or the Array Visualizer HTML Help section "New Features for Compaq Array Visualizer Version 1.6".

The Product Overview slide show contains the following parts:

Part 1: Introduction to Compaq Visual Fortran

Learn about the features and capabilities of Compaq Visual Fortran (Visual Fortran), including new features for Visual Fortran Version 6.5 and previous Version 6 releases, such as the Compaq Extended Math Library (CXML).

Part 2: The Microsoft Developer Studio^tm Environment

Discover the world of Microsoft Developer Studio. Learn about Visual Fortran's easy-to-use development environment with integrated debugger, source code browser, and online documentation.

Part 3: Building a DLL and Performing Mixed Language Programming

Construct a dynamic link library written in Fortran and use it in applications written in both Fortran and C++!

Part 4: Using COM with Visual Fortran

See a demonstration using the Visual Fortran Module Wizard to create a Fortran application that calls remote Component Object Model routines.

Part 5: Visual Fortran Professional Edition

Learn about the Compaq Visual Fortran Professional and Enterprise Editions featuring the IMSL® math and statistics Fortran libraries from Visual Numerics®, Inc. and the Fortran COM Server.

Part 6: Compaq Array Visualizer

Learn about the Array Visualizer (included in the Professional and Enterprise Editions) and its free viewer, Compaq Array Viewer.

System Requirements for the Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer 97

A personal computer with a 486 or higher processor, Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows NT 4, Windows Me, Windows 98, or Windows 95 operating system
12 MB of memory for Windows NT or Windows 2000
7 MB of hard disk space (9 MB free for installation only)
VGA or higher-resolution video adapter
Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device

Installing the Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer 97 and Running the Overview

Download the Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer 97 (or later version) from Microsoft's Web Site:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/powerpoint/
Search for the ppview97.exe installation program. Download ppview97.exe to your computer.
Run the ppview97.exe installation program on your computer.
After installation, start the PowerPoint Viewer by selecting "Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer 97" from the Start -> Programs menu.
Inside the Viewer, select
<CD-drive>\info\overview\overview.ppt
where <CD-drive> is the letter of your Visual Fortran CD-ROM drive.
At this time you may wish to adjust some of the Viewer options. See "How Do I Navigate the Overview" below.
Click the "Show" button to begin viewing the Overview. The Overview will start with a black screen.

How Do I Navigate the Overview?

The Overview is designed to run in two modes, self-running and interactive.

In the self-running mode, slides advance automatically. Actions such as text appearing and slides transitioning occur at prespecified times. However, the you can control certain actions (see below). This mode is the default, but to ensure that the Overview runs in self-running mode, select the "Using Timings, if present" radio button in the PowerPoint Viewer.
In the interactive mode, you control when actions take place (see below). To run the Overview in interactive mode, click the "Manually" radio button in the "Advance slides" box of the PowerPoint Viewer.

Additional viewing settings can be adjusted using the Options dialog box. Clicking the "Options..." dialog box in the PowerPoint Viewer displays the Options dialog box. Of particular interest is the "Loop continuously until 'Esc'" option. Selecting this option will automatically replay the Overview when it has reached the last slide. The Overview will continue looping in this manner until the Escape key is pressed.

In either the self-running or interactive mode, there are some commands that you can use to control the Overview. Below is a summary of common actions you can make while viewing the Overview:

To perform the next event Press the Page Down key OR Press the right arrow key
To back up a slide Press the Page Up key OR Press the left arrow key
To pause the Overview Click the right mouse button to display the popup menu
To end the Overview Press the escape key* OR Choose "End Show" from the popup menu

*Note that if you are running the Overview with the "Password Locked Slide Show" option set, the only way to exit the Overview is to press the escape key.

Troubleshooting and Known Problems

The Compaq Visual Fortran Overview is designed to be viewed with Microsoft PowerPoint 97 or Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer 97 (or the newer PowerPoint Viewer 97 for Office 2000). Older versions of the Viewer will not be able to correctly display the visual effects and animation contained in the Overview.

For more information about Compaq Fortran products, please see:

  http://www.compaq.com/fortran

For more information about the Compaq Extended Math Library (CXML), see:

 http://www.compaq.com/math

Compaq is a trademark of Compaq Information Technologies Group, L.P.
Developer Studio, MS, Microsoft, NT, PowerPoint, Visual C++, and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries.
IMSL and Visual Numerics are a registered trademarks of Visual Numerics, Inc.