Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!lanl!jlg
From: jlg@lanl.gov (Jim Giles)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: Fortran vs C for computations (compiler vs. editor macros)
Message-ID: <3289@lanl.gov>
Date: 7 Sep 88 19:39:00 GMT
References: <3462@phri.UUCP>
Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Lines: 16

From article <3462@phri.UUCP>, by roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith):
> 
> 	Hey, I agree, there are a lot of things you can do in Fortran just
> as well as in C, if not better (complex arithmetic, for example), but if
> you're going to knock C, at least pick on one of its real faults.  It has
> enough of them; no need to invent more.

But my point was that C's macro facility doesn't add any _functionality_
to the language.  It is just a build-in text substitution mechanism.  I
have used macros in Fortran code for years.  I claim that anything that
can be done with C macros can also be done in Fortran - _with_macros_.
I didn't identify this as a fault of C - just that the C supporters
often (incorrectly) identify this as a fault in Fortran.

J. Giles
Los Alamos