Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mit-eddie!ll-xn!ames!pacbell!att-ih!ihnp4!inuxc!iuvax!pur-ee!uiucdcs!uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!uxe.cso.uiuc.edu!hirchert
From: hirchert@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: MIL-STD-1753
Message-ID: <50500033@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 9 Mar 88 20:57:00 GMT
Lines: 31
Nf-ID: #N:uxe.cso.uiuc.edu:50500033:000:1794
Nf-From: uxe.cso.uiuc.edu!hirchert    Mar  9 14:57:00 1988


There was a request for information on MIL-STD-1753.  I've been carrying a copy
of 1753 around with me for several weeks now, but I left it home today because
my briefcase was getting too heavy, so I'll try to answer the questions from
memory.

1753 is a grab bag of features desired by DoD.  They include
1. extensions to the DO statement - DO WHILE and END DO are both part of this
   collection, but the way in which these features fit together is somewhat
   irregular.
2. an INCLUDE statement - The text of 1753 does _not_ require apostrophes
   around the file, although many implementers of 1753 have interpreted it as
   allowing the apostrophes to be required on a particular processor.  Others
   disallow the apostrophes.  Still others make them optional.  The INCLUDE
   statement proposal considered by X3J3 was essentially the 1753 INCLUDE
   statement with apostrophes (or quotation marks) required.
3. functions to manipulate bits in the guise of integers - Most of these 
   functions can also be found in ISA 61.1 or the IRTF (Industrial Real Time
   Fortran) standard.

While standards have the force of law in many European countries, in the U.S.
they are only a focused form of market pressure.  You are free to implement a
FORTRAN compiler that doesn't conform to X3.9-1978 as long as you don't
fraudulently claim that it does conform.  The GSA chose to make X3.9-1978
(i.e. FORTRAN 77) a purchasing standard for the entire U.S. government.  This
is a sufficiently large market that nearly all FORTRAN compilers conform to
at least the subset language defined in FORTRAN 77.  MIL-STD-1753 applies only
to DoD and has been ignored by many vendors although I would guess that a
majority do implement it.

Kurt W. Hirchert     National Center for Supercomputing Applications