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From: jlg@lanl.gov (Jim Giles)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: What is the FORTRAN for ?
Message-ID: <60202@lanl.gov>
Date: 15 Aug 90 22:00:50 GMT
References: <MAINE.90Aug13204121@altair.dfrf.nasa.gov>
Organization: Los Alamos Natl Lab, Los Alamos, N.M.
Lines: 22

> [...]
> There's no standard for calling sequences from C to FORTRAN, especially
> for CHARACTER arguments.  Our code has to run under VAX/VMS, IBM VM/CMS,
> Ultrix, Unix, AIX, and so on--so portability is important, and cross
> language calls are not currently portable.

This is a fault with the design of C (and all other HLLs in fact).  If
I were designing a new HLL, I would make Fortran call compatibility a
required part of the language specification.  That is, if the target
machine has a Fortran implementation, any conforming implementation of
_my_ language would be required to be able to interface to it in a
uniform manner.  The same goes for C, Pascal, etc..  Any time you
design a new language, call compatibility with other popular languages
in common use by your target user community should be a priority.  Else,
you'll have an obsticle in the path of people trying to use your new
language.

Of course, if you don't see this as a problem with the design of C, then
you'll have to admit that Fortran users are not part of the proper target
user community of C.

J. Giles