Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!unmvax!brainerd
From: brainerd@unmvax.unm.edu (Walt Brainerd)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: dpANS Fortran 8x
Summary: It's called Fortran because it is Fortran.
Message-ID: <145@unmvax.unm.edu>
Date: 14 Jun 89 21:42:48 GMT
References: <2716@elxsi.UUCP> <13934@lanl.gov> <135@unmvax.unm.edu> <11935@pur-ee.UUCP>
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of New Mexico at Albuquerque
Lines: 19

In article <11935@pur-ee.UUCP>, hankd@pur-ee.UUCP (Hank Dietz) writes:
> More to the point, it isn't recognizable as Fortran.
> ... 
> I started with ANSI66 and, quite honestly, I still do a doubletake
> when I see ELSE in "Fortran" code.
> ...
> So, I'm opposed to pointers in Fortran on the basis that pointers are *very*
> alien to the existing Fortran idioms.  Translation:  if you want pointers,
> use C or some other language where that construct is understood by most
> programmers -- it is part of anyone's idiom.

I don't understand.  You say it is alien to Fortran, but it is part of anyone's
idiom.  So if you are capable of making the switch to C, why are you startled
by the radical new ELSE statement and the possible introduction of pointers?

Switching to C is a perfectly reasonable thing to do in some circumstances,
but a great many Fortran programmers to not have that option,
and they have jobs to get done for which pointers, recursion, data structures,
and all kinds of new 1970s type software innovations are very helpful.