scipy problem for fedora extras

[Morgan Hough]

I have checked the archives as best I can and I don't see any mention
of this so here goes. SciPy is a great python numerical package which
is also a dependency for many specialized scientific packages.
Apparently there is a problem with gcc-4.0.1's fortran support and
SciPy can't be built on an fc4 system (without third party commercial
software). Here's a more complete description of the problem from the
SciPy-users list:

<quote>
In an all-default configuration, it is not presently possible to build a
working scipy on Fedora Core 4, either old or new.  There is a bug in
gfortran which causes it to mis-compile the i1mach, r1mach, and d1mach
functions which are at the bottom of much of the Fortran code in scipy.
If you use g77 instead by using the appropriate compatibility RPMs
(compat-gcc-32-g77 and compat-libf2c-32), you'll find that gcc4 cannot
link to libg2c because it isn't in a directory which gcc4 searches.  I
haven't found a way of forcing a scipy build to use gcc 3.2.3 (the
compatibility version which is part of FC4).

The only feasible workaround I've found is to use g77 on FC4 to build
scipy (and Numeric and numarray), and create symbolic links to libg2c.a
and libg2c.so so that gcc4 can find them.  That is, do the following:

ln -s /usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux/3.2.3/libg2c.so
/usr/lib/gcc/i386-redhat-linux/4.0.1
ln -s /usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux/3.2.3/libg2c.a
/usr/lib/gcc/i386-redhat-linux/4.0.1

This is not supported, use at your own risk, your mileage may vary,
results are not guaranteed, pressure RedHat to release a gcc 4.0.2
update for FC4 in which the gfortran bug is fixed.  Personally, I'm
using Absoft Fortran on gcc4;  if you're an educational institution,
Intel will let you download and use their Fortran compiler for free.
Both seem to work fine with newscipy and FC4.
</quote>

I was wondering what can be done about this as I for one know of many
projects that build on SciPy. Is there any chance that 4.0.2 would be
released as an update? Who would decide such a thing? Is there an
acceptable Fedora Extras workaround that could be used instead? Thanks
in advance for your time.

Cheers,

-Morgan