The PORT Mathematical Subroutine Library

The development at Bell Laboratorms of PORT, a hbrary of portable Fortran programs for numemcal computation, is discussed. Portab]hty is achmved by careful language specification, together with the key techmque of spemfymg computer classes by means of predefined machine constants The library is built around an automatm error-handling facility and a dynamm storage allocatmn scheme, both of which are implemented portably These, together with the modular structure of the library, lead to slmphfied calhng sequences and ease of use.