More on Absoft MacFortranII and NKR Fortran

[Jim Jagielski]

Just the latest:

I have heard from Absoft concerning my questions about MacFortranII for A/UX:
mainly the use of ACTION instead of CARRIAGECONTROL option in OPEN to
specify FORTRAN-type carriage control {the VAX uses CC}; and the behavior
of MFII closing a preconnected file 1st when it is reOPENed.

The say that ACTION is more wide spread than CARRIAGECONTROL, although my
experience as been (as well as the experience from readers of
comp.lang.fortran) indicates otherwise. Also, any compiler that claims to
be "VAX compatible" or having "VAX extensions" should KNOW about the way
VAX FORTRAN handles carriage control and factor this into it's compiler
(MIPS does... so does NKR... Language Systems does too). In any case, it's
doubtful that this will be changed... pity, since it would result in a more
portable source.

As far as the behavior of OPEN, they do admit that it's a bug... they say they
PLAN on fixing it, but it most probably won't be fixed in the next release...
Compare this to NKR Research and their support and you'll see that Absoft
is left behind.

My only complaint is that I spend over $600 for MFII, which I am not satisfied
with at all (except it's support of sdb). I can't recommend this package. For
less money, you can get NKR Fortran which is nicer. If Absoft changes, I'll
let you know... until then, I'll just protect others from the same mistake
I made :(
--
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#include <std/disclaimer.h>
                                 =:^)
           Jim Jagielski                    NASA/GSFC, Code 711.1
     jim at jagubox.gsfc.nasa.gov               Greenbelt, MD 20771

"Kilimanjaro is a pretty tricky climb. Most of it's up, until you reach
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