a style question

Jim Giles jlg at lanl.gov
Sat Oct 6 09:54:36 AEST 1990


>From article <15689 at csli.Stanford.EDU>, by poser at csli.Stanford.EDU (Bill Poser):
> Jim Giles says that "Fortran" allows specification of array bounds.
> [...]
>                                        Fortran is a moving target
> because each standardization introduces what in other contexts
> would be considered a new language.  [...]

Yes, Fortran is a moving target.  But, if you aren't up to where it
was 12 years ago, you need to do some work on your tracking and target
acquisition.  When I complain that C doesn't have features that I
consider important, one of the usual responses I get is that ANSI C
does and it unfair of me to condemn C because of what _used_ to be its
failings.  Well, ANSI C only came into existence this January!  Turn-
about is fair play. If a 12 year old feature is to be regarded as
still missing from Fortran, then 12 year old C implementations should
be regarded as representative of that language.

J. Giles



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