Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!know!cs.utexas.edu!yale!cmcl2!lanl!jlg
From: jlg@lanl.gov (Jim Giles)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: a style question
Message-ID: <65030@lanl.gov>
Date: 5 Oct 90 23:54:36 GMT
References: <15689@csli.Stanford.EDU>
Organization: Los Alamos Natl Lab, Los Alamos, N.M.
Lines: 18

From article <15689@csli.Stanford.EDU>, by poser@csli.Stanford.EDU (Bill Poser):
> Jim Giles says that "Fortran" allows specification of array bounds.
> [...]
>                                        Fortran is a moving target
> because each standardization introduces what in other contexts
> would be considered a new language.  [...]

Yes, Fortran is a moving target.  But, if you aren't up to where it
was 12 years ago, you need to do some work on your tracking and target
acquisition.  When I complain that C doesn't have features that I
consider important, one of the usual responses I get is that ANSI C
does and it unfair of me to condemn C because of what _used_ to be its
failings.  Well, ANSI C only came into existence this January!  Turn-
about is fair play. If a 12 year old feature is to be regarded as
still missing from Fortran, then 12 year old C implementations should
be regarded as representative of that language.

J. Giles