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From: chidsey@smoke.brl.mil (Irving Chidsey)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: Fortran 90 status
Message-ID: <15998@smoke.brl.mil>
Date: 30 Apr 91 12:19:53 GMT
References: <KHB.91Apr24160852@chiba.Eng.Sun.COM> <15972@smoke.brl.mil> <1991Apr26.200903.1938@unixg.ubc.ca>
Organization: U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory, APG, MD.
Lines: 36

In article <1991Apr26.200903.1938@unixg.ubc.ca> buckland@cheddar.ucs.ubc.ca (Tony Buckland) writes:
<In article <15972@smoke.brl.mil> chidsey@smoke.brl.mil (Irving Chidsey) writes:
<>
<>What are the relative merrits of smaller, incremental changes every
<>5-6 years, versus these monstrous rewrights every 12-15 years?
<
< Smaller or more incremental, or not, I'd expect them to argue just
< as long, and I'd expect the formal rituals to take just as long;
< I doubt they could complete *any* change in a mere 5-6 years.

	Then the process will grind to a halt during the next change or so,
and the language will fossilize.  Another alternative will be for the
standardization process to grind to a halt with the language continuing to
grow and dividing into increasingly incompatible dialects.  Either bodes
ill for the future of Fortran.

< Point (ii) is that with a change every decade or so we get a
< chance to use each version for a while before the next one starts
< looming on the horizon.

	Then perhaps the process should spend more effort on standardizing
things that have been shown to work well, and less on trying to predict
what god would choose if he were writing fortran.

	The standards committee should work hard to standardize what
works, it should put some effort in to guiding future practice, but it
should not be afraid of saying 'we were not able to agree on what would
be the best way of these things, but we do agree they should be tried.'

								Irv

-- 
I do not have signature authority.  I am not authorized to sign anything.
I am not authorized to commit the BRL, the DA, the DOD, or the US Government
to anything, not even by implication.  They do not tell me what their policy 
is.  They may not have one.		Irving L. Chidsey  <chidsey@brl.mil>