Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!vsi1!daver!ditka!zinn!ubbs-nh!siia!wje
From: wje@siia.mv.com (Bill Ezell)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Fortran functions
Message-ID: <1990Jan30.191039.12165@siia.mv.com>
Date: 30 Jan 90 19:10:39 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Software Innovations, Inc.
Lines: 32

After a long interval (18 years!) of not having looked at Fortran, I
have had to work on some VMS Fortran recently. I came across a situation
where I'm not sure how the compiler figures out what's going on. The
program does the following:

	character*5 foo
	character*5 ans

	ans = foo(arg)

where foo is a function, not in the same file. Foo is not declared external.

My question is, how does it know that the use of foo is a function call,
and not a subscript operation? It seems that this is rather ambiguous.
In the case above, arg was a character*80, so does the compiler infer
that foo() is a function call from the fact that a character string
can't be a subscript? If so, what if the call had been of the form

	ans = foo(1)

or some such? Also, is there any difference between:

	character*5 var
	character var*5
	character var(5)

Eagerly awaiting enlightenment....
-- 
Bill Ezell
Software Innovations, Inc.
wje@siia.mv.com
(603) 883-9300