Introduction

Fortran is not well supported by a lot of IDEs. Microsoft Visual Studio has syntax highlighting but missing a lot of great features, when it comes to auto completion, signature help, find and peek references. Visual Studio Code in comparison has some great extensions and is running on MacOs, Linux and Windows.

This small Guide should help you to setup a full development environment for Fortran.

Visual Studio Code

• Description:

  Code editing. Redefined. Free. Built on open source. Runs everywhere [https://code.visualstudio.com/].

• GitHub: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode
• Download and Install:
  • Windows: choco install vscode, https://code.visualstudio.com/download
  • Linux: https://code.visualstudio.com/download
  • OSX: https://code.visualstudio.com/download

Settings

If you are working with Fortran in the fixed-column format it is useful to setup rulers at the relevant columns. Add this to your settings.json:

"[fortran_fixed-form]": {
    "editor.rulers": [
        6,
        73
    ]
},

Visual Studio Code Extensions

There are some extensions that are very useful. Modern Fortran can be used for syntax highlighting and snippets. For features like Signature help or GoTo/Peek definition and much more FORTRAN IntelliSense should be installed. If you also want to debug, you have to download the extension Fortran Breakpoint Support.

Modern Fortran

Overview

• Description:

  This extension provides support for the Fortran programming language. It includes syntax highlighting, code snippets and a linting based on gfortran [https://github.com/krvajal/vscode-fortran-support].

• GitHub: https://github.com/krvajal/vscode-fortran-support
• Download: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=krvajalm.linter-gfortran
• Requirements:
  • none

Settings

Basic symbol functionality or hover information is also provided by Modern Fortran. Using Modern Fortran and FORTRAN IntelliSense simultaneously those should be deactivated in your settings.json:

"fortran.provideCompletion": false,
"fortran.provideSymbols": false,
"fortran.provideHover": false,

FORTRAN IntelliSense

Overview

• Description:

  FORTRAN IntelliSense (IDE functionality) support for VSCode, powered by the Fortran Language Server [https://github.com/hansec/vscode-fortran-ls].

• GitHub: https://github.com/hansec/vscode-fortran-ls
• Download: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=hansec.fortran-ls
• Requirements:
  • fortran-language-server, python[, pip]

This Extension needs the fortran-language-server to operate because it is just an interface for the fortran-language-server which can be used by different IDEs. It is written in python

Requirements

1. Install python
2. Install pip
3. Install fortran-Language-server

• Python:

  • Description:
  • GitHub: https://github.com/python
  • Download and Install:
    • Windows: choco install python, https://www.python.org/downloads/windows/
    • Linux: sudo apt-get install python3, pacman -S python | pacman -S python2
    • OSX: https://www.python.org/downloads/mac-osx/

• pip:

  • Description:

    pip is the package installer for Python. You can use pip to install packages from the Python Package Index and other indexes [https://github.com/pypa/pip].

  • GitHub: https://github.com/pypa/pip
  • Download and Install:
    • Windows: it is often already installed during the installation process of python itself https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/installing/
    • Linux: https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/installing/
    • OSX: https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/installing/

• fortran-language-server:

  • Description:

  A Fortran implementation of the Language Server Protocol using Python (2.7+ or 3.0+). Editor extensions using this language server to provide autocomplete and other IDE-like functionality are available for Atom, Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio, (Neo)vim, and Emacs [https://github.com/hansec/fortran-language-server].

  • GitHub: https://github.com/hansec/fortran-language-server
  • Download and Install:
    • Windows: python -m pip install fortran-language-server
    • Linux: pip install fortran-language-server
    • OSX: pip install fortran-language-server
  • Update:
    • Windows: python -m pip install --upgrade fortran-language-server
    • Linux: pip install --upgrade fortran-language-server
    • OSX : pip install --upgrade fortran-language-server

Settings

To setup the fortran-language-server a file named .fortls is needed in your workspace in Visual Studio Code. It is written in JSON. Example .fortls:

{
  "mod_dirs": [
    "src",
    "ins"
  ],
  "excl_paths": ["src/Debug", "src/Release"],
  "excl_suffixes": [".u2d", ".vfproj", ".sln", ".txt"],
  "lowercase_intrinsics": false,
  "debug_log": false
}

Fortran Breakpoint Support

• Description:

Add breakpoint support for fortran [https://github.com/ekibun/FortranBreaker]

• GitHub: https://github.com/ekibun/FortranBreaker
• Download: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ekibun.fortranbreaker
• Requirements:
  • none

Build & Debug

In general you have to define a tasks.json for the build and link process and a launch.json to start to debug.

Also have a look at: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/debugging

Install compiler

• Windows: gfortran via MinGW for example
• Linux: sudo apt-get install gfortran, sudo pacman -S gcc-fortran
• OSX:

Create launch.json:

{
  "version": "2.0.0",
  "configurations": [
    {
      "name": "Debug Fortran & build",
      "type": "cppdbg",
      "request": "launch",
      "targetArchitecture": "x86",
      "program": "${workspaceRoot}\\${fileBasenameNoExtension}.exe",
      "miDebuggerPath": "gdb.exe",
      "args": [],
      "stopAtEntry": false,
      "cwd": "${workspaceRoot}",
      "externalConsole": true,
      "preLaunchTask": "build_gfortran"
    }
  ]
}

Create tasks.json

The gfortran compiler should be accessible via the command line.

Create tasks.json:

{
  "version": "2.0.0",
  "_runner": "terminal",
  "tasks":[
    {
      "label": "build_gfortran",
      "type": "shell",
      "windows": {
        "command": "gfortran"
      },
      "linux": {
        "command": "gfortran"
      },
      "osx": {
        "command": "gfortran"
      },
      "args": [
        "-g",
        "${file}",
        "-o",
        "${workspaceRoot}\\${fileBasenameNoExtension}.exe"
      ]
    }
  ],
}

Debugging

Click on the debug symbol in Visual Studio Code, choose the debug configuration and press start.