From: utzoo!watmath!watarts!bernie
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards
Title: Re: FORTRAN-to-C translator
Article-I.D.: watarts.1619
Posted: Tue Jan 11 09:45:10 1983
Received: Wed Jan 12 23:51:18 1983
Reply-To: bernie@watarts (Bernie Roehl)
References: turtleva.115

A major problem with a Fortran to C translator is that Fortran passes
arguments to functions by address, whereas C pass them by value.  Not
only does this require that you pass arguments as &arg instead of just
arg, it also means you have to keep track of which variable used in a
function are arguments to it, and consistently use *arg within the function
instead of just arg.  This is a nuisance!  Unfortunately, there's no way
around it.  (at least, I can't think of any).  Any Fortran program large
enough to justify automated translation is bound to have functions in it
that modify their arguments and expect the corresponding variables in the
caller to be modified as well.
                                  --Bernie Roehl
                           (...!decvax!watmath!watarts!bernie)