Fortran Versions (was JB Passes)

On 26 Mar 2007 at 22:05, Jerome H. Fine wrote: Sans vendor-specific extensions, you're probably right. At least that was the goal of F77. I did a few X3J3 sessions with what was then known informally as the FORTRAN 8x ANSI group (vector extensions on behalf of ETA) and at least then (1985), the goal was to maintain backward compatibility, albeit with quite a number of "deprecated" features. It was a nasty experience with threats by the IBM contingent to walk out of the proceedings. A big argument was "Should X3J3 simply select the best of the current extensions and ratify them or should we be about designing a new language?" It was a serious issue; IBM wanted Vectran ratified; many wanted an alternative syntax. Needless to say, with all of the contention, FORTRAN 8x wasn't about to meet the informal goal of becoming FORTRAN 88--it took until 1990-- and I'd been long gone. Full-blown F90 looks about as much like F77 as F2003 looks like F90. It's kind of like going back to the old neighborhood after 30 or 40 years--you recognize some things, but it's mostly foreign. I rather liked Basic FORTRAN IV (that's what it was called). A minimal functional subset; no logical IFs, ASSIGNed GOTOs, object- time FORMAT or named COMMON. Just a handful of statements that you could pretty much compile and run anywhere. Cheers, Chuck