On Thu, 2 Nov 2000 10:37:00 +0000 Clive Page <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> 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?  
A very respectable F90/95 compiler has been produced by Fujitsu, hardly 
essentially anglophone!
> 
> > 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. 
The early f90 version was somwhat iffy but I have been using the latest F95 
version for sometime and it is pretty robust pleasent to use and it does have 
support for the varying string standard builtin. Unfortunately it still 
supports the original F90 part 2 standard and has not updated to the f95 
version. The memory leak problem with the illustrative module version I 
produced as an existence proof for the standard is inherent in the definition 
of F90. This is greatly improved if not totally removed from the F95 version, 
which also makes the manipulation routines elemental. I use the module 
myself, albeit not for any very demanding applications and have had no 
serious problem with memory management.
> 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.                   
> 

--
Lawrie Schonfelder
Retired Director, Computing Services Dept.
The University of Liverpool, UK, L69 7ZF
Phone: 44(151)625 6986





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