Xref: utzoo comp.lang.fortran:680 comp.software-eng:590
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!quintus!ok
From: ok@quintus.UUCP (Richard A. O'Keefe)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran,comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Fortran follies
Summary: there is a proper way to do this
Message-ID: <1005@cresswell.quintus.UUCP>
Date: 21 May 88 08:24:48 GMT
References: <5377@cup.portal.com> <2852@mmintl.UUCP>
Organization: Quintus Computer Systems, Mountain View, CA
Lines: 13

In article <2852@mmintl.UUCP>, franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams) writes:
> In article <5377@cup.portal.com> Paul_L_Schauble@cup.portal.com writes:
> >     real a(1), b(1)			<-- note dimensions
> 
> I would recommend that you regard a dimension of 1 for an argument as
> meaning that the dimension is undefined.  It's not pretty, but it works.

This has never been strictly legal.  Fortran 77, unless I am much mistaken,
has a "proper" way of doing it:  the last (and only the last) dimension of
a formal array parameter may be '*'.  So this declaration should read
	real a(*), b(*)
A Fortran compiler is entitled to generate code to check the actual
subscripts against the declared dimensions.