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From: mike@rice.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.works
Subject: Re: Time for keyword parameters for prog. lang's
Message-ID: <12511@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 19-Apr-84 23:19:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.12511
Posted: Thu Apr 19 23:19:00 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 13-May-84 00:29:08 EDT
Lines: 23

From:  Mike Caplinger <mike@rice.ARPA>

The R^n programming environment for Fortran that we are working on here
at Rice supports full subroutine call templating as you describe.
Program comments are stored for each parameter, and the comments and
data type, as well as the name of the parameter in the defining
routine, are displayed when you insert a call to that routine.  The
editor is structured, but has a number of text-like features like text
positioning and text expression entry.

The editor uses the philosophy that convenient language usage can be
provided by the editor rather than by the language.  Overuse of
declaratory syntax, as in Ada, just renders the language difficult to
use, and even obstructionist at times.  By using a structured editor,
we can bypass all of that syntax and provide a better user interface
too.

It currently supports just Fortran, but I am working on a project to
support other languages using a common intermediate language.  It runs
on Sun Workstations under Unix, and one of these days we may distribute
an early version to interested universities.

			- Mike