Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!uflorida!novavax!hcx1!hcx9!dougs2
From: dougs2@hcx9.SSD.HARRIS.COM
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: Fortran 8X
Message-ID: <44400023@hcx9>
Date: 17 Sep 88 22:15:00 GMT
References: <3647@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Lines: 33
Nf-ID: #R:phoenix.Princeton.EDU:3647:hcx9:44400023:000:1582
Nf-From: hcx9.SSD.HARRIS.COM!dougs2    Sep 17 18:15:00 1988




I agree.  It seems most of the radical changes to Fortran proposed in X3J3 
can be placed in two categories:

	o Those that make it easier for compiler writers
	o Those that make Fortran a nice, simple, 'modern' language

One of the appeals of Fortran is that it is easily optimized.  Since
there is no recursion, there is no stack to mess with.  Variable space
may be allocated in the .text portion of the program.  Simple variable
references are just that - simple.  K=L is turned into move.l L,K rather
than move.l 4(sp),8(sp).  Program flow maps are generally easier to 
construct.  Fortran is an easy language to write programs in.  No counting
braces and semi-colons.  I/O formatting that is straight-forward and
sensible (remember, these are only my opinions :->).  It has signs of age,
but processes may be expressed simply, without much programming overhead.

It is too bad that Fortran is looked upon as a useless language by many
(just observe much of the recent flaming about Fortran vs. C for numerical
analysis).  A book I came across in college, "Structured Fortran 77 for
Scientists and Engineers," puts major language features like EQUIVALENCE,
arithmetic IF, computed GO TO, EXTERNAL, and alternate RETURNs in an
appendix at the back, with the statement "the use of these features is
discouraged."


Douglas G. Scofield                          dougs@ssd.harris.com
Harris Computer Systems                      
2101 W. Cypress Creek Rd.                    Help stamp out AdaTran!
Ft. Lauderdale, FL  33309   
                      These opinions are mine only.