brainerd@unmvax.unm.edu (Walt Brainerd) (01/13/90)
I t ' s F o r t r a n 9 0 ! ! !
I just returned a few hours ago from the Dallas X3J3 meeting.
The spirit was to fix the known problems and ship it.
Typical of the size of the technical changes was the one
to change the unequal operator from <> to /= because (among other things)
"less than or greater than" does not read too well for complex values.
Also, the idea of user-specified character sets (which implied the
possibility of using strange letters in identifiers) was dropped.
There were a few other small items that I and others will pass along
as soon as I have a chance to collect every thing and produce the
next version of the document.
The biggie was to agree to give the language the informal name "Fortran 90".
So it turns out that the X in Fortran 8X was a Roman numeral.
The committee has directed the US delegation to the WG5 meeting
next month to vote "no", but change to "yes" as soon as the edit
changes and small changes such as those above are accepted
(the vote must be done this way unless you propose no changes).
So the expectation is that it will enter the last stages of processing
as both an ISO and American standard with few technical changes.
Even the people at the meeting who have traditionally opposed the standard
did a LOT of hard and good work to make sure that we identified all
of the new arguments raised in the second round of public comments
and turn them into editorial or technical change proposals,
but the mood was that if it was a request for things that had been
considered many times before, we would just work to get it done.
--
Walt Brainerd Unicomp, Inc. brainerd@unmvax.cs.unm.edu
2002 Quail Run Dr. NE
Albuquerque, NM 87122
505/275-0800 505/275-0801 (fax)metcalf@cernvm.cern.ch (Michael Metcalf) (05/31/90)
FORTRAN 90 - AT LAST!
_____________________
New Draft is Forwarded
______________________
For the last 12 years, the ANSI technical committee X3J3 has
been working on a new version of the Fortran standard, to
replace FORTRAN 77. The good news from the recent meeting of
X3J3 was that it achieved its most important objective - to
finish the agreed technical work on the third draft of the
standard, known as Fortran 90 - and voted 27 to 11 to forward
it to its senior committee, X3, for further forwarding to
ISO/SC22 to become a DIS (Draft International Standard). Once
registered as a DIS in Geneva, it can be subject only to edito-
rial changes and would normally become a full ISO standard six
months later, after country votes on its adoption.
Being Fortran, life is, of course, not quite so simple.
Although the second draft standard on which this third one is
based was well accepted by the public, and the third represents
only relatively minor modifications to the second, X3J3 voted
22 to 13 to recommend X3 to subject it to a third period of
public comment within the US. This has two consequences:
* even if the comment is restricted to only those features
which have changed and is handled as rapidly as possible,
an inevitable delay in its final introduction as a US (as
opposed to international) standard is introduced;
* the door is opened to the possibility of yet further
changes being made to the US standard even as the interna-
tional one is being adopted! Result: three Fortran stan-
dards (X3 has already decided to keep Fortran 77 as a sepa-
rate standard from Fortran 90).
There is little that can be done by other countries to influ-
ence X3 in this regard.
The other fly in the ointment is the claim that, at the last
minute, a design error has been found in the way in which for-
ward references to procedures are handled. Imagine that, within
a module containing many procedures which contain in turn
internal procedures, a reference to SIN(X) is found. Is this a
reference to the intrinsic SIN function, to an internal proce-
dure of the same name, or to another module procedure of the
same name? If very long modules are written, it can be discov-
ered very late that a wrong assumption has been made and compi-
lation has to restart. The problem can be coded around by
demanding truly explicit interfaces, use of the INTRINSIC or
EXTERNAL statements, compiler directives, or smart compilers
which make a fast first scan over the source text to get an
'overview' of what it has to do. Another solution is to alter
some of the language syntax such that the problem goes away
(for the compiler writer). It boils down to a com-
pile-time inefficiency issue, and had been identified as
such at the second Implementation Workshop which had preceded
the meeting.
The situation is left such that some people think the draft
is flawed, while others think there is no problem (at least not
a serious one). Sun, for instance, is opposed to any further
change in the document. There will be an attempt to examine
the issue in more detail by an ad hoc group, and this might
lead to an attempt to make a technical change to the document
even during the formal processing. Anyway, the big vote to
forward the standard was clouded by these two issues, and there
was no mood of celebration.
Implementations
_______________
Passing the standard is only a beginning - implementations are
what the users want to see. It has been very encouraging that a
second Implementation Workshop was held, at which implementers
have been able to hammer out some of the implementation
details. This one was attended by 55 people, with most vendors
represented.
The Future
__________
Now that the standard is formally finished as far as X3J3 is
concerned (aside from the matters described above), attention
now turns to the future of the committee. It is not yet clear
what the future role of X3J3 will be. It has produced
Fortran 90 under old rules which no longer apply. Will the next
standard be prepared by some form of international group based
on ISO/SC22/WG5? Certainly many think so. And what should be
the form and content of a successor standard? Can this be sen-
sibly discussed before the new one is even in the field? Should
there even be a new standard at all? These topics will begin
to be discussed at a WG5 meeting in August, and I would be hap-
py to receive any input from those of you who have views. Note
that a summary of Fortran 90 is available as CN/90/06 from the
Computer Science Library or JRZCN AT CERNVM.
I hope we can now turn our attention to collaborating with
vendors as they bring new products onto the market, and look
forward to an eventual success for Fortran 90.
M. Metcalfjulian@cernvax.UUCP (julian bunn) (09/24/90)
Fortran 90 Explained, Michael Metcalf and John Reid
---------------------------------------------------
This new edition is being published in October. It corresponds
to the third draft proposed standard for Fortran 90
now undergoing US and international public review, but incorporating
many of the detailed changes made at the last meeting of
X3J3 in August 1990. Given that Fortran 90 is now at an advanced
stage in the standardization procedure, with adoption as an ISO
standard widely considered likely early next year, this should
be the final edition of this book.
Compared with the revised edition of 'Fortran 8x Explained'
it has been completely revised to
take account of all the modifications to the draft standard.
In particular, a thorough audit comparing the texts of the book
and of the draft standard has been undertaken. The text has been
reset using an improved text-processing system.
Ordering information:
ISBN 0 19 853772-7
Price $29.95 or 14.95 pounds sterling
Publisher Oxford University Press
US 200 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10016
(212) 679-7300
UK OUP Bookshop
116 High Street
Oxford OX1 4BR
(0865) 56767sjc@key.COM (Steve Correll) (09/25/90)
In article <2813@cernvax.UUCP>, julian@cernvax.UUCP (julian bunn) writes: > > Fortran 90 Explained, Michael Metcalf and John Reid > --------------------------------------------------- > > This new edition is being published in October. It corresponds > to the third draft proposed standard for Fortran 90... > ...this should > be the final edition of this book. Now if only there were a cheap upgrade available to registered owners of the first two editions of this software--er, book. :-) -- sjc@key.com or ...{sun,pyramid}!pacbell!key!sjc Steve Correll
ok@goanna.cs.rmit.oz.au (Richard A. O'Keefe) (09/25/90)
In article <2813@cernvax.UUCP>, julian@cernvax.UUCP (julian bunn) writes: > Fortran 90 Explained, Michael Metcalf and John Reid > --------------------------------------------------- Sigh. Is there an upgrade policy for owners of an earlier release? -- Fixed in the next release.
sp@beta.lanl.gov (Stephen W Poole) (01/21/91)
I was wondering if anyone knows of any F90 preprocessors that are available other than the ones from Pacific Sierra and the one from ParaSoft. Steve...
vanadis@cs.dal.ca (Jose Castejon-Amenedo) (04/24/91)
Is there a public domain document where Fortran 90 (or what has so far been agreed about it) is described? JCA vanadis@cs.dal.ca
vsnyder@jato.jpl.nasa.gov (Van Snyder) (04/26/91)
In article <1991Apr23.181439.6437@cs.dal.ca> vanadis@cs.dal.ca (Jose Castejon-Amenedo) writes: > > Is there a public domain document where Fortran 90 (or what >has so far been agreed about it) is described? I haven't heard of "public domain" in the sense of free and machine-readable. But there is the draft standard, available from Global Engineering Documents in Irvine, CA for about $50, and two books, one by Metcalf and Reid, and the other by Adams, Brainerd and ? (not sure of the latter). Walt Brainerd has offered the draft standard in N-roff form for sale. Walt reads stuff here and will post details if he wants to be bothered. -- vsnyder@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov ames!elroy!jato!vsnyder vsnyder@jato.uucp
vanadis@cs.dal.ca (Jose Castejon-Amenedo) (04/26/91)
I want to thank Jeff Carroll (carroll@ssc-vax.boeing.com), Melvin Klassen (klassen@sol.UVic.CA), Peter L. Montgomery (pmontgom@math.ucla.edu), Van Snyder (vsnyder@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov), for their replies to my query about documents on Fortran 90. As it happens, there exist public domain documents, but they are not free. Two texts are ``Programmer's Guide to Fortran 90'', by W.S. Brainerd, C.H. Goldberg, & J.C. Adams; and ``Fortran 90: The Complete ANSI Reference'', by J.C. Adams (both in McGraw-Hill). JCA vanadis@cs.dal.ca
psmith@convex.com (Presley Smith) (04/26/91)
In article <1991Apr26.113820.1826@cs.dal.ca> vanadis@cs.dal.ca (Jose Castejon-Amenedo) writes: > > I want to thank > > Jeff Carroll (carroll@ssc-vax.boeing.com), > Melvin Klassen (klassen@sol.UVic.CA), > Peter L. Montgomery (pmontgom@math.ucla.edu), > Van Snyder (vsnyder@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov), > >for their replies to my query about documents on Fortran 90. > > As it happens, there exist public domain documents, but they >are not free. Two texts are ``Programmer's Guide to Fortran 90'', by >W.S. Brainerd, C.H. Goldberg, & J.C. Adams; and ``Fortran 90: The >Complete ANSI Reference'', by J.C. Adams (both in McGraw-Hill). > You must remember that only X3J3 or WG5 can issue interpretations on Fortran 90. The title "Fortran 90: The Complete ANSI Reference" is a bit misleading. The author of that book can only provide her interpretation and guidance on the standard. If X3J3 or WG5 decides that something in the standard will be interpreted differently from what it's interpreted in the Adams book, then that will be the official interpretation. The Adams book does not speak for the committees or for ANSI. I'd suggest that anyone wanting to know what the standard says should buy a copy of the standard and read it. If you want help in understanding what it says, then these books and the "Fortran 90 Explained" by Metcalf and Reid can help explain it to you. This standard is large and complex. The committee made 93 changes to it in the last meeting a couple of weeks ago. None of those changes and many of the changes made in the last 6 months are probably not comprehended in any of these books. FYI