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From: khb%chiba@Sun.COM (chiba)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: length of a character string
Message-ID: <125062@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Date: 21 Sep 89 06:25:49 GMT
References: <18585@ut-emx.UUCP> <18603@ut-emx.UUCP> <2475@ualtamts.BITNET>
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Reply-To: khb@sun.UUCP (chiba)
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View
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In article <2475@ualtamts.BITNET> userAKDU@ualtamts.BITNET (Al Dunbar) writes:
>
> varying length string discussion
> 
>Correct! However, the German representatives to WG5 proposed such a
>thing.

Such things have been repeatedly proposed over the last decade. The
German representive (singular) may have also done so .... but such
proposals predate his (and my) particpation in x3j3. There is a strong
feeling that the language is large enough (or too large :>) and that
varying length string modules are easily constructed (and, in fact,
jerry w. the vice-chair even showed one back in 1985)

>Rather than putting it directly into  the  standard  at  this  late  date,
>however,  a compromise was reached. The concept of "non-advancing
I/O" was

Has nothing to do with varying length string proposals. Non-advancing
IO was chosen in preference to "stream IO" during a protracted design,
review and debate process. I can't promise you it is better; but it
was chosen _after_ due deliberation.

>more complete implementation of  "stream  I/O",  preferably  allowing  for
>asynchronous,  character  at  a  time I/O with serial devices. The

Asynchronous IO is very hard to specify in a completely OS independent
fashion. The current proposal should cover character at a time (though
one expects there to be efficencies for grabing more per transaction)
and asynch extentions are probably planned by most of the vendors
whose operating systems support such things.

>development  of  a  useful  extension,  rather  than  adding the extension
>itself, seems a particulary poor approach to the standardization
>process.

True. But that isn't how it happened.


Keith H. Bierman    |*My thoughts are my own. !! kbierman@sun.com
It's Not My Fault   |	MTS --Only my work belongs to Sun* 
I Voted for Bill &  | Advanced Languages/Floating Point Group            
Opus                | "When the going gets Weird .. the Weird turn PRO"