On Thu, 2 Nov 2000, Michael Metcalf wrote:

> As has been pointed out, there is, after all that hoo-ha, no known example
> of a compiler that supports anything other than the default kind.

I wonder if that is connected with the fact that just about all
Fortran90/95 compilers have been produced in anglophone countries?  

> In a similar vein, the Germans would probably not have voted for Fortran 90
> had the varying string module not been standardized at the same time. That,
> too, has found essentially zero acceptance. 

I think it's not quite zero.  The NAS Fortran90Plus compiler has the
varying string module built in, but early versions of that compiler for
the PC were so poor that I for one was put off it completely.  It may have
improved since, I don't know.  And the only published version of the
varying string module is said to have memory leak problems, which probably
puts many other people off using it.  I have lots of programs which could
be improved if they used varying strings, but up to now I have had to put
up with fixed-length ones.  So I think it's a feature that is needed, but
the low level of use is due to extraneous factors.
 

-- 
Clive Page,
Dept of Physics & Astronomy,               
University of Leicester.                   



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