Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!hc!beta!a!jlg
From: jlg@a.UUCP (Jim Giles)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: Fortran 8x features, criterion for inclusion
Message-ID: <506@a.UUCP>
Date: 4 Mar 88 23:25:29 GMT
References: <500@a.UUCP> <1067@ut-emx.UUCP>
Organization: Los Alamos Natl Lab, Los Alamos, N.M.
Lines: 15
Keywords: Standard review.
Summary: criterion

In article <1067@ut-emx.UUCP>, reeder@ut-emx.UUCP (William P. Reeder) writes:
> I think (but only when absolutely neccessary ;^) that the standards 
> committee should generally only standardize existing practice.  I am
> willing to make an exception for those features which (lots of) users 
> have wanted but no vendor has been willing to implement (are there any 
> that fit this criterion?).

I tend to agree, with a slight exception.  There are numerous features that
are not yet 'standard practice' but for various reasons are available in 
many Fortran environments.  Things like internal procedures, array syntax,
include, dynamic memory, etc..  I think it is well within the charter of the
committee to consider these and to standardize them before myriad incompat-
ible versions become available.

J. Giles
Los Alamos