[Info-vax] VMS Software Q1 '23 Update

[bill]

On 1/25/2023 7:54 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> 
> 
> Many years ago I did a lot of Fortran, but it has been some years.
> 
> As I remember it then good practice was to have the common block itself
> in an include to ensure consistency and to only initialize once - either
> in a block data which I think was invented for this purpose or some
> pre-determined place like the main program.
> 

As did I.  And, at one point I even got to be the front man for support
for the Fortran Compiler on Primos.

Two interesting things I have run into that are loosely related.

We got a complaint from an "engineer" who claimed the compiler was
broken because when he compared reals they never equaled each other.
Prime fixed that one by adding an error message that politely said
"Don't do that, stupid".

But the better one is still available for viewing today.  The PL/M
compiler is written in Fortran.  It uses a lot of COMMON.  The version
I use is somewhat different from the ones you will find on the web.
Mine has all the variables in the same order in all of the COMMON
declarations!  And yet it worked for how many years?  Points out
another flaw.  Obviously all the stuff in COMMON really doesn't need
to be there.

John, I don't envy your job.

bill