Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!uwvax!uwmacc!uwmcsd1!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!zdenko
From: zdenko@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (Zdenko Tomasic)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: F8X comments
Message-ID: <3514@uwmcsd1.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 16-Nov-87 13:25:15 EST
Article-I.D.: uwmcsd1.3514
Posted: Mon Nov 16 13:25:15 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 18-Nov-87 03:40:25 EST
References: <50500015@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu> <5774@j.cc.purdue.edu> <422@uni2.bcm.tmc.edu> <402@auvax.UUCP>
Sender: daemon@uwmcsd1.UUCP
Reply-To: zdenko@csd4.milw.wisc.edu.UUCP (Zdenko Tomasic)
Organization: University of WI-Milwaukee
Lines: 38
Keywords: FORTRAN 66, 77, 8x
Summary: old compilers are out (usually)

In article <402@auvax.UUCP> rwa@auvax.UUCP (Ross Alexander) writes:
>In article <422@uni2.bcm.tmc.edu>, rick@svedberg.bcm.tmc.edu (Richard H. Miller) writes:
>> 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. 
>
>No it won't.  Dusty decks can be complied with the *old* compiler; new
>decks can be compiled with either, depending on which side of the bed the
>programmer who wrote them got up on that day.  Just because someone invents
>a new language, x, and chooses to call it y.2 where y is a previously existing
>language, doesn't make any difference to however many gazillions of lines
>of y code already out there.  I mean really, are the compiler police going
>to come and take your fortran {II, IV, -66, -77} compiler & libraries away?
             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>Get serious.
>
>Ross Alexander @ you too can read the path

It can happen, not by a compiler police but by economical realities.
To support different compilers of the more or less the same language,
may be too costly. In that case, it is usually the latest standard
that survives and the old one is out. 

How many installations still use f66 compilers in addition to their
f77 compilers (especially since FORTRAN is not the preferred language
of the CS people)?


Zdenko Tomasic
UWM, Chem. Dept.
Milwaukee,WI,53201
__________________________________________________________
UUCP: ihnp4!uwmcsd1!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!zdenko
ARPA: zdenko@csd4.milw.wisc.edu
__________________________________________________________