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From: rick@svedberg.bcm.tmc.edu (Richard H. Miller)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: F8X comments
Message-ID: <422@uni2.bcm.tmc.edu>
Date: Sat, 14-Nov-87 15:46:21 EST
Article-I.D.: uni2.422
Posted: Sat Nov 14 15:46:21 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 15-Nov-87 19:27:35 EST
References: <50500015@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu> <5774@j.cc.purdue.edu>
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Summary: F8X

In article <5774@j.cc.purdue.edu>, ags@j.cc.purdue.edu (Dave Seaman) writes:
> 
> Common blocks will no longer be needed.  Why burden implementors with
> something that is unnecessary?  Why encourage users to stick to outmoded
> features of the language?
> 

Augh! Fortran has been around for many many years. Why is there such an
insistance upon "improving" a language to the point it is totally different
from existing implementations of the language. You will force a rewrite of
many millions of lines of working code. This will force the redeployment of
many programmers to do this upgrade which will not allow them to work on 
*new* applications. 

I have no objection to an evolutionary path for an existing language, but
to totally rework the definition as it seems to be proposed is stupid. 

You also have to consider that there are many thousands of 'amateur'
programmers who program in FORTRAN. (e.g. researchers, scientists and the
like) who would have to totally relearn the language. Considering the 
fun we had with learning the new COBOL 74 and are having with COBOL 8x 
with professional programmers, the thought of retraining all of these people
is a scary thought (No flames about the use of the word amateur. This is not
meant to be a putdown of these people. I use the word to denote people who
write programs as an adjunct to their jobs rather than using all of their
time to write code.) 

In summary, a standard language should NOT BE CHANGED in such a drastic 
manner. Allow it to evolve, but do not change it into something different.