Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!sugar!ssd
From: ssd@sugar.uu.net (Scott Denham)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: Why have FORTRAN 8x at all?
Summary: The Very Heart of the matter
Keywords: FORTRAN
Message-ID: <2947@sugar.uu.net>
Date: 3 Nov 88 18:59:41 GMT
References: <388@ubbpc.UUCP> <16187@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <391@ubbpc.UUCP> <75769@sun.uucp>
Organization: Sugar Land Unix - Houston, TX
Lines: 21

In article <75769@sun.uucp>, khb%chiba@Sun.COM (Keith Bierman - Sun Tactical Engineering) writes:
 ( Extensive discussion of "Why Revise Fortran" deleted)
> Because lack of a new standard breeds ever more complex vendor extensions.
> 
> Keith H. Bierman

To my way of seeing it, this point alone is enough to answer the whole 
question of "why" - if Fortran 77 was such a great tool for the applicastion 
writer, *WHY* are there so many vendor extentions?  Surely these folks don't
just wake up one morning and decide it would be nice to add say, a new 
loop construct (DO WHILE ?) to their compiler.  These extensions cost the
developers a signifigant amount of money.  This speaks for the users 
driving the market to provide these new features.  Clearly it is to the
benefit of all to standardize the way these extentions are handled so
that Fortran remains a language and not just a concept. 
 
 What's next.... "Turbo Fortran" ????
 
 Scott Denham 
  Western Atlas International
   Houston, TX