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From: psmith@mozart.uucp (Presley Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: X3 Vote on Fortran 8x
Message-ID: <2192@convex.UUCP>
Date: 19 Oct 89 02:40:53 GMT
Sender: news@convex.UUCP
Reply-To: psmith@convex.com (Presley Smith)
Distribution: comp.lang.fortran
Organization: Convex Computer Corporation, Richardson, Tx.
Lines: 33


The X3 committee voted today by a large margin to retain ANSI X3.9-1978,
the current FORTRAN 77 standard, as an active standard of the American
National Standards Institute (ANSI) and to make the proposed Fortran 8x a
separate standard.  This means that when Fortran 8x is finally approved that
it will be assigned a different ANSI standard number.  The proposed 8x 
standard is now being referred to as Fortran Extended.

The effect of this action is that in the United States, FORTRAN users will
have a choice between continuing to use FORTRAN 77 or moving to the new 
Fortran Extended products as they become available in the marketplace.
FORTRAN 77 will continue to be an active ANSI Fortran Project so that 
interpretations may continue to be made on that standard by X3J3, but 
no major updates to that standard are anticipated.

There was much discussion of the international implications of this vote.
Internationally, the Fortran Extended standard will be the SAME as the 
ANSI Fortran Extended standard.  This is in compliance with the October,
1988 directive of X3 that X3J3 produce a single standard for both 
domestic and international use.  If the International Standards Organization 
(ISO) so chooses, FORTRAN 77 could be retained as a separate ISO standard
also.  That decision will be made by ISO at some future time.

This vote is good news for the ENTIRE FORTRAN community.  The more 
conservative FORTRAN user community has been concerned about true
upward compatibility of their FORTRAN 77 code, potential performance 
issues in Fortran Extended, and other concerns about being forced to
migrate to Fortran Extended.  In effect, those users who wish to can
continue to use FORTRAN 77 and can do so with ANSI standard compliant
compilers.  Users who want modern Fortran features will have those 
available in Fortran Extended products of the future.   The entire 
Fortran community will benefit greatly from this decision made today 
by the X3 committee.