Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!texsun!texsun.central.sun.com!convex!authorplaceholder
From: hutchson@convex.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: fortran lint?
Message-ID: <68000017@convex>
Date: 9 Jun 88 15:17:00 GMT
References: <3835@pasteur.Berkeley.Edu>
Lines: 15
Nf-ID: #R:pasteur.Berkeley.Edu:-383500:convex:68000017:000:757
Nf-From: convex.UUCP!hutchson    Jun  9 10:17:00 1988


The Honeywell(-Bull) GCOS Fortran-77 compiler has an option to check argument
and result types of subprograms at runtime.  For static calls (which
constitute the large majority), the full check is only done the first time
the routine is called; for calls to routines that are formal arguments, the
full check is done each time.
The full check includes:
- Number, type, and (for characters) length of arguments
- Presence of result, and (if present) type (and possibly length)
- Number of alternate returns
- Possible assignment to expressions or constants (warning only)

For large programs that were submitted as examples of compiler errors, we
routinely compiled with this and subscript range checking.  Nearly always
immediately found a user error, too.