Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!purdue!haven!umbc3!mbph!hybl
From: hybl@mbph.UUCP (Albert Hybl  Dept of Biophysics  SM)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Character aliases are Satanic extensions
Keywords: Using SAP inclusions
Message-ID: <598@mbph.UUCP>
Date: 30 May 89 03:38:26 GMT
Organization: University of Maryland, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21201
Lines: 81


In article <92@unmvax.unm.edu> from brainerd@unmvax.unm.edu (Walt
Brainerd) writes:
>> ... The
>> standards committee not the vendors must be responsive to market
>> pressures--that is, if we want a _portable_ standard.
>
>One thing the vendors should understand better than
>anyone else is market pressure
>
One thing the Army knows better than anyone else is warfare,
but they are not allowed to declare WAR.  One thing the our police
know better than anyone else is crime, but they are not allowed to
write criminal law.  One thing that vendors could do is assist clients
lobby the Standards Organization rather then running a NRA-like campaign
for their own sub rosa agenda.

>>  ... Sections
>> 1.3.2.(4) and 1.4 guarantee that the objective of portability will
>> never be achieved!
>
>It can be achieved only (in the case of Fortran) by intelligent
>programmers sticking to standard code with the help of the (new
>in Fortran 8x) requirement on the processor to flag nonstandard
>syntax, when requested to do so, and help in the form of shading
>of nonstandard stuff in the vendor's manuals.
>
This is an excellent example of a calumniatory sentence.  Notice
the innuendo--ONLY STUPID PROGRAMMERS USE VENDOR EXTENSIONS!
Those who crafted and espouse that statement want FORTRAN programmers
to engage in internecine name calling.  Let me restate:  "Perusal
of the colorful VAX VMS FORTRAN Language Reference Manual divulges
a description _with examples_ on how to use the Satanic character
aliases.  The description is not relegated to an appendix nor does
it discourage the continued use of such coding.  The implementors
of the VAX VMS FORTRAN should be excoriated for promoting the
perpetuation of such anachronistic coding practices."  Those who
provided the programs I am porting should not interpret my pasquinading
of the X3.9-1978 FORTRAN language standard in any way a criticism of
their programming technique.

In article <3728@s.cc.purdue.edu> from ags@s.cc.purdue.edu 
(Dave Seaman), writes:
>Old-timers may recall that around 30 years ago, a satirical work
>known as "The Computer Programmer's Coloring Book" was popular.
>
>On one of the pages was a picture of a stick man, with the caption:
>
>	This is a FORTRANner.  Color him naive.
>
Are you vaccinia naive?  Let me rephrase:--Have you ever been given
a smallpox vaccination?  The objective of vaccination is to provide
immunity to a specific disease by causing the formation of antibodies.
Immunity can also be acquired by contracting and surviving an attach
by the disease.

Thirty years ago I was a naive FORTRANner working as a Post Doctoral
student at Iowa State University.  Programmers zealously tried to
economize memory or reduce execution time.  IBM provided FORTRANners
an extension call Symbolic Assembly Procedures.  By putting an "S" in
column one, we could include a machine language instruction in-line
along with a symbolic reference to an appropriate variable.  That was
a terrific idea.  Symbolic Assembly Procedures invaded our code like
a retrovirus attaching its victim.  After about a year, Iowa State
University acquired a new computer; its FORTRAN compiler did not
provide Symbolic Assembly Procedures.

The sudden withdrawal was painful and accompanied by distressing 
side effects; I woke up to the fact that IBM had made a _SAP_ of
me.  That is how I acquired the misoextension antibodies that help
protect me against vendor extensions.  I hope my experience will
help others to understand why FORTRAN should be a portable language
and not a plethora of vendor experiments.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Albert Hybl, PhD.              Office UUCP: uunet!mimsy!mbph!hybl
Department of Biophysics       Home   UUCP: uunet!mimsy!mbph!hybl!ah
University of Maryland                CoSy: ahybl
School of Medicine
Baltimore, MD  21201                 Phone: (301) 328-7940 (Office)
----------------------------------------------------------------------