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From: msf@rotary.Sun.COM (Michael Mike Fischbein)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: FORTRAN 8X PRECISION
Message-ID: <1005@east.East.Sun.COM>
Date: 12 Nov 89 23:03:17 GMT
References: <7563@xenna.Xylogics.COM> <50500166@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu> <1212@key.COM>
Sender: news@east.East.Sun.COM
Reply-To: msf@rotary.Sun.COM (Michael Mike Fischbein)
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.  Albany, NY
Lines: 34

In article <1212@key.COM> sjc@key.COM (Steve Correll) writes:
>
>Sorry, I didn't make myself clear. Once you've changed the exponents from "e"
>to "d", you can indeed leave them alone henceforth as you switch between
>"real" and "doubleprecision". But that's irrelevant if you're faced with a
>large existing program which used "e" in the first place. If it's not too
>arduous and error-prone to go find all the "e"s and change them to "d"s, then
>it's not too arduous and error-prone to append "_my_precision" in the fashion
>of F88 (though you may debate the aesthetics thereof). I perceive that many
>users feel that both approaches are too arduous and error-prone, and would
>prefer an IMPLICIT facility for literal constants.

I beg to differ.  Using a regular expression search in a typical
programmer's text editor, it is easy to 'go find all the "e"s and
change them to "d"s'.  If we have available a tool such as sed(1) on
UNIX systems, the task is even simpler.

It is equally easy to use the same editor append a "_my_precision"
string, true, but that adds 14 characters to the line for every
constant containing an exponent.  Given FORTRAN-77s attention to
exactly which column you are in (coming up on 72?), this approach
requires careful checking to ensure proper continuation for any line
which is now extended past 72, particularly if dusty decks are to be
accomodated.  Also include the possibility of extending a line past the
maximum number of allowed characters, and you have a non-trivial
problem.

		mike


Michael Fischbein, Technical Consultant, Sun Professional Services
Sun Albany 518-783-9613     sunbow!msf or mfischbein@sun.com
These are my opinions and not necessarily those of any other person or
organization.