Release notes for D System distribution 0.6:

The D System project is investigating the design and construction of software 
tools aimed at supporting machine-independent data-parallel programming 
in Fortran D and High-Performance Fortran.

The tools in release 0.6 include a prototype compiler and editor for Fortran D.

The Fortran D compiler included in this release is a prototype that was
developed focusing on deep optimization of very restricted Fortran 77D
programs. Among other things, the compiler in this release assumes that
the number of processors is a defined constant, all loop bounds are known
constants, and all subscripts of distributed arrays are either known
constants or simple linear expressions off the form: loop index variable
+/- constant.  The Fortran D compiler prototype supports data
distributions along only 1 array dimension. BLOCK data distributions are
the only distribution type supported reasonably well. Some support for
cyclic distributions exists, but it typically generates code that is
incorrect in one way or another.  The compiler also contains support for
handling irregular problems; a good way to get more information about this
is to read some of Reinhard von Hanxleden's papers. Much effort is
currently directed at redesigning and building a robust, full-featured
version.  A set of kernels for which the compiler works correctly are
included in the directory $DSYSTEM/examples. Don't expect this compiler to 
work for entire applications.  It might work for yours, but inspect its 
output carefully since it typically generates incorrect code rather than aborting.
More information about the Fortran D compiler can be found in 
$DSYSTEM/man/man1/fortd.1 and from papers accessible through the WWW
repository http://www.cs.rice.edu/fortran-tools/DSystem/DSystem.html

The D editor is a prototype tool aimed to support development of 
data parallel programs. Currently the tool has no editing capability and 
supports only interactive browsing of Fortran D programs. The D Editor 
enables a user to understand at the the level of the original source 
what the effect of the program's data distribution directives will be on 
the program. Several types of feedback are presented. First, loops are 
colored according to the level of parallelism (green for embarassingly
parallel, yellow for partial (pipelined) parallelism, and red for
sequential). The loop colors give a rough indication of whether the 
Fortran D compiler will be able to do a good job on that loop nest. 
A second kind of feedback provided by the editor is showing information 
about the messages that the compiler will insert into the program.
This can provide a user with a sense of how much communication will occur
at run time. 

Also included in the release is a binary demo version of a new prototype
of the editor (for which the source is not included). This version of
the editor can overlay performance information from a trace of an execution
on an iPSC/860 on the source to provide procedure-level summaries of 
communication and computation, as well as loop-level summaries
of communication overhead. The demo version of the editor is based on a
motif interface that will replace all of the old, home-grown user interface
technology that is in $DSYSTEM/src/libs/graphicInterface/oldMonitor. 

This release is intended to present a snapshot of work in progress. 
Much effort is being put into redesigning the software infrastructure
to result in tools with more functionality, more readable code, and
a greater level of robustness.

See the man pages for fortD, dedX and dedXMotif for descriptions
of known bugs in and limitations of the tools. All of the known 
bugs and limitations of fortD -- the Fortran D compiler -- apply 
as well to dedX and dedXMotif since these tools are both built upon 
the compiler's program analysis subsystem.