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From: gt4512c@prism.gatech.EDU (BRADBERRY,JOHN L)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: MS-FORTRAN bug in string concatenation
Message-ID: <22078@hydra.gatech.EDU>
Date: 15 Feb 91 13:07:24 GMT
References: <2PWGG2@MPLVAX.SRI.COM>
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology
Lines: 27

In article <2PWGG2@MPLVAX.SRI.COM> HUESTIS@MPLVAX.SRI.COM (David L. Huestis) writes:
>Under Microsoft FORTRAN the following simple program
>
>       character string*4/'abc'/
>       string = '*'//string
>       write(*,*)string
>       end
>
>produces the output '**bb' while LAHEY and VAX yield '*abc'
>
>Microsoft FORTRAN takes no precautions against the source strings
>overlapping the destination string.

Hmmmm...this looks like a problem related to another thread concerning
goto's used to branch directly into the middle of IF-THEN-ELSE blocks. The
'problem' is confusion over what a compiler SHOULD do with non-standard
or illegal code fragments!!! Rather than slam Microsoft FORTRAN for not
being 'clairvoyant' in this case, consider this as a need to understand
the proper use of the concatenation operator. The only restriction
FORTRAN places on such usage is that overlapping substrings CANNOT appear
on both sides of the same assignment statement...

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