[Info-vax] Text processing examples with Fortran requested

[glen herrmannsfeldt]

Richard B. Gilbert <rgilbert88 at comcast.net> wrote:
(snip)

> Sometimes the standards people needed some time to catch up with 
> reality.  VAX Fortran was Fortran IV and my recollection is that it did 
> support a character data type.  ISTR that IBM System/360 Fortran also 
> supported a character data type in the mid 1980's.

The OS/360 compilers, Fortran G, H, and H extended, did (and still
don't) support CHARACTER.  VS Fortran from the S/370 era is a
Fortran 77 compiler and does (still) support CHARACTER.  Also,
WATFIV from about  1973 supported CHARACTER along with many other
Fortran 77 features.  (Sort of a test of the features before
the standard was released.)

> I do recall that programs coded in IBM Fortran needed a little "touching 
> up" before it would compile and run on the VAX.
 
The DEC compilers tended to have many more extensions than
IBM did, though there might be some that IBM had that DEC didn't.

> When I got my first VAX I had to port both IBM System/360 Fortran and 
> HP's Fortran for the 2100 Series machines to VAX/VMS.  The experience 
> taught me to write more portable code!!  I had used non standard 
> features simply because they were there; needless to say no OTHER 
> Fortran supported an identical set of non standard features.

-- glen