Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ukma!uflorida!stat!stat.fsu.edu!mccalpin From: mccalpin@masig1.stars.flab.Fujitsu.JUNET (John D. McCalpin) Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran Subject: Re: Digital Review Article: VAX Fortran will break under F88 Message-ID: Date: 18 Jun 89 06:02:45 GMT References: <19553@cup.portal.com> Sender: news@stat.fsu.edu Distribution: usa Organization: Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd., Kawasaki, Japan. Lines: 14 In-reply-to: CEReid@cup.portal.com's message of 17 Jun 89 03:19:10 GMT I'm sure that DEC will keep the current compiler technology available for a _long_ time after the F8X standard is adopted. In fact, some vendors may not even bother with implementing the new compiler at all. One vendor (who shall remain nameless) said that his company was willing to change their NO vote to YES if ANSI would keep the 77 standard active -- thereby defining F8X to be a new language, and allowing F77 to still be an "official" fortran. It took IBM long enough to come out with a Fortran-77 compiler -- it will be interesting to see how long a Fortran-88 compiler takes.... Maybe the new standard will mean the end of Fortran portability, rather than an improvement.... -- John D. McCalpin - mccalpin@masig1.ocean.fsu.edu - mccalpin@nu.cs.fsu.edu