On Wed, 2 Sep 1998, James Giles wrote:
> Dr W.W. Schulz <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
<SNIP>
I don't want to take up the earlier points here but this one:
> >Secondly, the parentheses for argumentless functions won't go away
> >so quickly since it requires explicit type declarations for all
> >variables and procedures, in other words removal of the implicit
> >or explicit IMPLICIT statements. I would welcome this but it is
> >not mentioned among the obsolescent features in F2000. And Fortran
> >likes to give some warning ahead of time, quite reasonably so, what
> >will be deleted.
>
> Well, as I said, we don't need to get rid of implicit. Any symbol that's
> implicitly declared will still need the parenthesis (if it's a function). Symbols
> with an explicit interface are known (both to the user and the compiler)
> to be procedures. You don't need the parenthesis to determine that for you.
<SNIP>
I agree with the last statement, but without getting rid of implicit types
this would become again a fudged syntax part in Fortran:
function foo( x )
real x
...
end function foo
would need parentheses when called while
function foo( x )
real x
real foo
...
end function foo
would not. Such rules are just bloating the standard and confusing to
most Fortran users. Textbooks are and will be filled with all kinds of
good advice on how NOT to program in Fortran as it is already with such
good advice as
use IMPLICIT NONE
use global PRIVATE for modules and explicit PUBLIC for exported parts
(I agree and use those myself).
In general I agree and subscribe to the philosophy of the Elf90 and F
subsets, not in all details but that's another matter. It should be
the direction of any future Fortran. Hence I deplore any new syntax
that does run against such a possible modern Fortran. It is unnecessary
and will just lead to further backward compatibility problems (real or
imagined). The correct way to deal with the above problem is to get rid
of implicit types asap. F2000 does not list this among the obsolescent
features hence this implies that implicit types will remain with us for
at least another ten years. Arrrgh.
Cheers,
WWS
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| Werner W Schulz |
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