[Info-vax] Fortran

[Bill Gunshannon]

On 12/5/18 4:30 AM, Dave Froble wrote:
> On 12/5/2018 3:26 AM, Simon Clubley wrote:
>> On 2018-12-04, Dave Froble <davef at tsoft-inc.com> wrote:
>>> On 12/4/2018 9:25 AM, abrsvc wrote:
>>>>
>>>> The removal of Hollerith constants is ongoing in anticipation of the 
>>>> loss of support for those in future compilers.
>>>>
>>
>> That code must be multiple decades old. I know it's a pain, especially
>> when certification is involved, but sometimes code needs to be
>> updated in light of more modern standards and safety requirements.
>>
>> In some ways, it's no different than needing to update VAX C
>> code to work with modern C compilers. The updates are required
>> for a reason and the code is better as a result.
>>
>>>
>>> Apparently there are those "bemoaning" the loss ....
>>>
>>> I got to ask, why were they removed?  Was it necessary?
>>>
>>
>> They were removed because it is a concept which results in both
>> hard to read and hard to maintain code and which was replaced by
>> a safer option decades ago.
>>
>> Fortran has had ideas which seemed good at the time but which have
>> not stood the test of time. The other one which comes immediately
>> to mind are common blocks whose definitions are repeated in more
>> than one place.
>>
>> Simon.
>>
> 
> The question remains, was it necessary?
> 
> If the compiler could have continued to support the "hard to read and 
> maintain code", and there was no reason to remove the capability, then 
> that should not have been done.

Damn Dave.  we actually agree on something!!!  :-)

> 
> Causing others to do some work, which would not have been necessary, is 
> not a good thing.  Causing others to re-write usable code, because some 
> don't like it, is arrogance carried to the extreme.

And poses the possibility of introducing new bugs into code that
has been working just fine for decades.  What was it I said? "If
it ain't broke, don't fix it."  And the corollary, "If it ain't
broke, don't deliberately break it just so it can be fixed."

bill