Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!sco!seanf
From: seanf@sco.COM (Sean Fagan)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: Fortran vs C for computations
Summary: replying again, sigh
Message-ID: <1226@scolex>
Date: 11 Sep 88 20:05:43 GMT
References: <3169@emory.uucp> <3338@lanl.gov>
Reply-To: seanf@sco.COM (Sean Fagan)
Organization: The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.
Lines: 38

In article <3338@lanl.gov> jlg@lanl.gov (Jim Giles) writes:
>So what?  Functions called by dead code aren't really called after all.
>What difference does it make if the _if_ statement or the _ifdef_ directive
>is the visable syntax?  The _ifdef_ was only introduced because many 
>compilers are _very_ bad at dead code elimination.

>_OPEN_ statements which are 'system specific' are non-standard and don't
>enter into this discussion.  In any case, a compiler which complains of
>syntax errors in an OPEN statement which appears in the middle of a dead
>code sequence should be fixed.  Furthermore, there are ways to provide
>I/O extensions to Fortran without muching up the OPEN statement (I am just
>finishing an I/O support library for Fortran on the Crays, I provide a
>large number of extensions - including all the features proposed in
>8x - without altering the OPEN statement syntax in any compiler-checkable
>way).  
[I deleted mucho stuff; sorry]

This is the whole point.  The preprocessor (which you call unnecessary),
permits me to write a program on BSD, port it to SYSV, thence to VMS, and
end up with *one* program which will compile with no changes (such as, oh,
for a trivial example, take GNU EMACS).  I would like to see *any* FORTRAN
program, doing non-trivial stuff (i.e., more than just simple I/O and number
crunching), behave the same way, WITHOUT A PREPROCESSOR.
Take, for example, one of the world's most perfect FORTRAN machines [my bias
coming through; sorry again 8-)]:  the CDC Cyber 170/760.  Also take the
(painfully slow) DEC VAX 8800.  Write a useful program in FORTRAN on the
VAX.  Try to compile it on the Cyber.  Oops!  The compiler complained of
massive syntax errors.  Why?  VMS allows $'s in names, long function names,
etc.  NOS doesn't.  With a preprocessor, your problems go away (almost).

I like C on Unix systems.  I like FORTRAN on NOS.  I wish, at times, that
NOS had a preprocessor, but it doesn't.


-- 
Sean Eric Fagan  | "Joy is in the ears that hear, not in the mouth that speaks"
seanf@sco.UUCP   |     -- Saltheart Foamfollower (S. R. Donaldson)
(408) 458-1422   | Any opinions expressed are my own, not my employers'.