rick@svedberg.bcm.tmc.edu (Richard H. Miller) (11/14/87)
Does anyone have the address where to write for a copy of the ANSI draft standard for fortran 8X.
cdb@hpclcdb.HP.COM (11/17/87)
Once more, vital stats on the public review : Duration : October 23, 1987 to February 23, 1988 Copies of the Draft Standard are $50 from Global Engineering Documents Co. (714) 540-9870 (worldwide) (800) 854-7179 (West Coast - toll-free) (800) 248-0084 (East Coast - toll-free) Ask for the X3.9 Standard. Send Comments to : X3J3 Public Review c/o CBEMA Suite 500 311 First Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20001-2178 (CBEMA is the ANSI X3 Secretariat) ANSI procedures require the technical committee (X3J3) to reply to EVERY public review letter received during the review period. For those who find $50 a little steep or standardese a little ( :-) ) boring, two members of X3J3 have written a tutorial book, "FORTRAN 8x EXPLAINED" which is available for $19.95 from Oxford University Press, 200 Madison Avenue, NY, NY 10016, (212) 679-7300. The ISBN reference is 0-19-853731-X (paper). The authors are John Reid (U.K. Harwell) and Mike Metcalf (CERN, Switzerland). I've skimmed about half of it - it's set up as a tutorial on the overall language, not just the changes from F77. It is far more readable than ANY standards document. Before anyone asks, no, I don't have any financial interest in the book. I will admit to liking its authors and its slant on the draft Standard. The above isn't a commercial - the below is. Please write the committee with your comments, both positive and negative. Three or four (very) large computer vendors are opposing the draft Standard and there have been rumors in print (e.g., "Datamation", October 15, 1987) of letter-writing campaigns organized by these vendors, presumably through their users' groups. In other words, this is all very political. Assuming that something you like is safe and inevitable since it's in the draft - isn't. Somehow I doubt that I need to encourage the writing of negative letters :-). There is some work going on by X3J3 in parallel with the public review. Three main additions are being proposed and considered : Kanji support, some sort of pointer facility, and reconsideration of BIT data type. "Being considered" means exactly that, no prognosis is possible at this time. X3J3 met last week in Fort Lauderdale and will again in February at New Orleans. Carl Burch hplabs!hpda!cdb