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From: fox@DASHER.NSCL.MSU.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: global data
Message-ID: <1991Jan8.130651.20104@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu>
Date: 8 Jan 91 13:04:41 GMT
Sender: news@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu
Distribution: usa
Organization: National Superconducting Cyclotron Lab
Lines: 32

In article <16609@cs.utexas.edu>, ubiquity@cs.utexas.edu (Richard Hoffman) writes...

>In article <1991Jan7.131620.27789@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu> fox@DASHER.NSCL.MSU.EDU
>writes:
>>.. and since INCLUDE is not part of the FORTRAN-77 standard, there's no
>>portable way to get the effect of a global parameter statement.  
> 
>One way to get a semi-portable INCLUDE *anywhere* is to use the C
>preprocessor.  You don't have to know anything about C, except
>for the rules of #include itself.  C is widely available, so most
>installations will have it.  I have frequently used it with FORTRAN,
>and also the C #define statements, which I find much more convenient
>than PARAMETER statements.
> 
>It does add an extra step to program preparation, though.


  Not all C compilers decouple the preprocessor from the compiler. This
implies that it's not always possible to get C preprocessor output.  So
this isn't so portable after all.  This statement covers a few DOS compilers,
and the VMS C compiler as well.  Of course writing a pre-processor which 
understands the #include directive is not so hard, and that's probably the
only *truly* portable way to do it until FORTRAN-9x compilers begin to
appear.

		Ron

Ron Fox                     | FOX@MSUNSCL.BITNET      | Where the name 
NSCL                        | FOX@CYCVAX.NSCL.MSU.EDU | goes on before
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East Lansing, MI 48824-1321 |                         | goes in.
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