[SciPy-dev] Dealing with stupid compilers: ifort on itanium cannot compile empty source files

[David Cournapeau]

Hi,

    While helping someone to get scipy compiled with intel compilers on 
itanium, I encountered a serious problem: ifort cannot compile empty 
source files on itanium !! The files I got problems with are in ARPACK 
(two .f files are empty), but there may be other too, I don't know. 
Putting comments do not seem to work, there must be some statements...
    What would be the best solution in this case ? Is it ok to remove 
the files (since they are empty, this cannot be too bad, I guess, except 
if there is a need to track upstream library)

    cheers,

    David