SUPES, Engineering Sciences Utilities Program Library

1 - Description of program or function: SUPES (Software Utilities package for the Engineering Sciences) is a collection of FORTRAN subprograms which perform frequently used non-numerical services for the engineering applications programmer. SUPES includes three functional categories: (1) input command parsing, (2) dynamic memory management, and (3) system-dependent utilities. The subprograms in categories one and two are written in standard FORTRAN 77, while those in category three provide a uniform interface to necessary operating system functions. The SUPES free-field input system provides a uniform command syntax for the end user minimizing the burden of command parsing on the applications programmer. The memory manager utilities allow an applications programmer to write standard FORTRAN 77 programs using dynamic memory management for REAL, INTEGER, and LOGICAL type arrays. The SUPES FORTRAN extension library provides the uniform interface to necessary operating system functions for generic tasks which cannot be accomplished via standard FORTRAN. SUPES makes it possible to maintain software on different operating systems with a single point of support for system dependencies. 2 - Restrictions on the complexity of the problem: SUPES does not take advantage of extended system capabilities since they may not be available on a wide range of operating systems, and it is not written to minimize execution times