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From: cdb@hpclcdb.HP.COM (Carl Burch)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: Position after Open
Message-ID: <6690021@hpclcdb.HP.COM>
Date: 25 Oct 88 23:18:15 GMT
References: <220@taux02.UUCP>
Organization: HP NSG/ISD California Language Lab
Lines: 14


The Fortran 77 standard doesn't say, which defaults to "processor-dependent".
I know of at least one implementation that sets the initial position to the
end, while the others I know of offhand open it at the beginning.

If we ever get the Fortran 8x standard out, one of the additions to the OPEN
statement is the POSITION= specifier, which takes a scalar character expression
that evaluate to 'ASIS', 'REWIND', or 'APPEND'.  The default is 'ASIS', which
(if the file is not previously connected) means the position is "unspecified"-
a.k.a. "processor-dependent".  This is one of the many small enhancements that
are hanging for years waiting for X3J3 to agree on a few larger items.

						- Carl Burch
						  HP Compiler Lab