Van Snyder wrote:

> John Bray <[log in to unmask]> expressed two concerns concerning the
> J3 paper ftp://math.jpl.nasa.gov/x3j3/doc/meeting/153/00-197.ps.gz.
> There appears, however, to be a growing sentiment that repeating the
> interface is the lesser of two evils.  There was also some discussion at
> the last J3 meeting about allowing "benign redefinition," which in this
> context means that it would be optional whether one wishes to repeat the
> interface with the body.  I am inclined toward allowing this.  I am
> interested to know the inclinations of others.

I quickly read over the paper, so comments (the only problem I too saw with the
proposal was the need to separate interface from body, possibly accross files):

I would certainly not see a problem with benign redefinition. However, it seems
to me that Fortran compilers are already required to be able to extract
interfaces very efficiently, so why not let the compiler make the submodule
function interfaces itself. I mean, the standard doesn't have to specify how
compilers should do theirjob, but many compilers already have an equivalent to
the C -M switch.
So, leave the submodule proposal as it is, but encourage compilers to be able
to extract necessary submodule information at request from the user. This would
enable software vendors to hide their secrets in submodules, while still not
making life harder for ones that are just worried about cascade recompilation.
Am I on the right track?
I myself am not too worried about the whole issue. Checking for changes in the
.mod file would work for me in practice. Also, I use HPF, which relies heavily
on IPA analysis, which submodules would make more complicated (besides, this is
not going to become part of HPF in the near future)...
On another note, I read the proposal for CoCo last night, and I am not too
happy. It still falls way behind cpp. Recursive macros, nested macros, nested
definitions and macros etc. need to be worked on some more I think...
Best,
Aleksandar

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Aleksandar Donev
Physics Department
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1116
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Work phone: (517) 432-6770
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