Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!know!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!amdahl!key!sjc
From: sjc@key.COM (Steve Correll)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: File handling in Fortran 77
Message-ID: <2153@key.COM>
Date: 2 Oct 90 18:13:25 GMT
References: <46016@masscomp.ccur.com> <1990Sep12.215551.16135@agate.berkeley.edu> <1990Oct1.174040.16208@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Organization: Key Computer Labs, Fremont, CA
Lines: 27

In article <1990Oct1.174040.16208@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>, hirchert@harriett.ncsa.uiuc.edu (Kurt Hirchert) writes:
> In article <2144@key.COM> sjc@key.COM (Steve Correll) writes:
> >Fortran 90 permits you to specify POSITION='REWIND', POSITION='APPEND', or
> >POSITION='ASIS' in the OPEN statement. The latter leaves the file position
> >unchanged if the file exists and was already connected.
> 
> Steve's description of POSITION='ASIS' is not entire correct.  ASIS provides
> processor-dependent positioning.  I.e., it provides what FORTRAN 77 provided
> ...

My description had better be correct, because the last ten words of it are
copied directly from lines 31 and 32 of section 9.3.4.7 of the S8.115 draft
standard! ASIS behaves as I described when the file was already connected, but
behaves as Kurt described (i.e. processor-dependent, like Fortran 77) when the
file was not connected.

Kurt's case is admittedly the more common. What is my case for? You can use
OPEN a second time on an already-connected file/unit pair so as to change the
attributes BLANK=, PAD=, or DELIM=. When you do, the default is
POSITION='ASIS', which is defined (mercifully enough) not to mess up the file
position in the process.

Rather than multiplexing two different meanings onto ASIS, it might be less
confusing to have two different attributes ASIS and PROCESSORDEPENDENT, but
it's probably good enough as is (sic).
-- 
sjc@key.com or ...{sun,pyramid}!pacbell!key!sjc 		Steve Correll