Proposal for a common data model module to set default KINDS about stdlib HOT 3 CLOSED

I think ideally, we want all the procedures in the library to work for all the integer/real/logical kinds that are available on the compiler. We don't want to force a user to have to recompile it for different kinds, and there are many use cases where the same application needs to use multiple kinds of real variables. Example: if a compiler adds real16, we shouldn't have to change any code, just recompile and it works.

Since this is basically impossible with standard Fortran, it's going to require some kind of external templating tool, e.g. jin2for.

from stdlib.

I typically prefer dp instead of wp (https://www.fortran90.org/src/best-practices.html#floating-point-numbers). Yes, for user code, writing it once is the way to go. For library code like stdlib, I think it's better to provide implementations for all precisions I think, so that users can simply call functions from stdlib without having to modify any file in stdlib to match their precision.

from stdlib.

A simpler variant of this has been implemented using standard kind parameters in stdlib_kinds.

@rweed if you think specific parts of it should be improved, let's tackle it in a new specific issue.

from stdlib.