Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!nstn.ns.ca!ac.dal.ca!scrutton
From: scrutton@ac.dal.ca
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Is this a "feature"?
Message-ID: <1991May23.160841.402@ac.dal.ca>
Date: 23 May 91 19:08:41 GMT
Organization: Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Lines: 17

I saw the super competent answers to the COMMON block initialization
question and hope someone can give me a hand with a couple of my own.

I'd like to find out if the SAVE statement existed in FORTRAN IV (66).
I've come across some old (stylistically) code which doesn't use the
statement and depends on static allocation. Every compiler I've tried
will let you get away with referencing local variables assigned in
previous calls to that routine so it's either a standard `feature' or
part of the standard.

I've also run across a DECODE statement which appears to be a precursor
to the (what's it called...) I/O using character variables as file units.
Is this yet another 66ism? VMS sure didn't like it but I thought 77 was
upward compatible with 66.

-- 
-Jeff scrutton@ac.dal.ca	Dalhousie University Oceanography Dept.