Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!rochester!bbn!uwmcsd1!marque!gryphon!pnet02!richh
From: richh@pnet02.cts.com (Rich Herzog)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: FORTRAN 8x
Message-ID: <2544@gryphon.CTS.COM>
Date: 14 Feb 88 03:20:24 GMT
Sender: root@gryphon.CTS.COM
Organization: People-Net [pnet02], Redondo Beach, CA.
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From what I have read here, I will be preaching to the converted,
but I cannot resist...

I have read the FORTRAN 8x draft, and I continue to be amazed at
the ability of a sanctioned standards committee to isolate itself
from global reality, and lose sight of its original purpose.  Now,
one can hardly blame the committee members for attempting job
security in perpetuity, but this is hardly the way.  It is very
clear to me that under the guise of 'refining' and redefining the
FORTRAN language, the committee members have actually defined ---
YES-- YOU GUESSED IT--- Ada !

They are attempting to change a stable, useful standard into something
that ALREADY EXISTS !

If I were a government contractor having to propose a configuration
management and lifecycle maintenance plan for a large project with a
20-year commitment, I don't know what I'd do.  You'd pretty much have
to insist that the compiler, linker, etc and the system on which the
software was developed be stored so that changes can be made long into
the product lifetime.

I'm all for applying good software engineering practices to development,
but 8x goes over the line.  Large software-engineering oriented projects
are already being done in Ada, which it's good for.  (Aren't you glad
there something?).  Medium-scale real-time and scientific applications
up to perhaps half a million lines as an upper bound) are still best
served in FORTRAN where appropriate. 

Removing 'classic' features, change for the sake of change, and adding
new meaning to existing constructs does no one good.

Will I be the first to suggest that we begin to refer to the proposed
change as 'FORTRAN 9x' as there seems little chance it will be approved
in the 80's  ?


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