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From: khb@chiba.Sun.COM (chiba)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: Digital Review Article: VAX Fortran will break under F88
Message-ID: <110884@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Date: 22 Jul 89 19:54:53 GMT
References: <19553@cup.portal.com>
Sender: news@sun.Eng.Sun.COM
Reply-To: khb@sun.UUCP (chiba)
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View
Lines: 27

In article <19553@cup.portal.com> CEReid@cup.portal.com (Curtis E Reid) writes:
>There was an article on the front page of DIGITAL REVIEW this week that said 
>VAX FORTRAN will break under F88 if implemented.  The F88 Standards has been
>adopted against DEC's wishes and codes that uses VAX Extensions extensively
>will break under F88.
>
>Is this true?  I have a lot of source codes that made extensive use of VAX
>Extensions.  Will these codes have to be modified to F77 so it will be
>compatible with F88 when it comes out?  Or, should I start looking at other
>languages?

DEC has strongly asserted that F88 will be incompatible with their
extended Fortran. Many other vendors think that the problems are not
insurmountable. (note the commitee vote 31-10, if memory serves.
Certainly not all members are vendors; but not all user delegetes
voted yes either).

If your application domain is "scientific" then I would advise you to
stick with Fortran. If DEC doesn't support you well, there will be
vendors who will.



Keith H. Bierman      |*My thoughts are my own. Only my work belongs to Sun*
It's Not My Fault     |	Marketing Technical Specialist    ! kbierman@sun.com
I Voted for Bill &    |   Languages and Performance Tools. 
Opus  (* strange as it may seem, I do more engineering now     *)