Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!gatech!hubcap!fpst From: fpst@hubcap.UUCP (Steve Stevenson) Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran Subject: Re: F8X comments Message-ID: <778@hubcap.UUCP> Date: Thu, 3-Dec-87 09:04:45 EST Article-I.D.: hubcap.778 Posted: Thu Dec 3 09:04:45 1987 Date-Received: Mon, 7-Dec-87 02:14:06 EST References: <9581@mimsy.UUCP> Organization: Clemson University, Clemson, SC Lines: 22 Summary: Portability in article <9581@mimsy.UUCP>, chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek) says: > >>In article <402@auvax.UUCP> rwa@auvax.UUCP (Ross Alexander) writes: >> ....[portability] > (Hah! Most useful FORTRAN programs or subroutines require *some* > change or adjustment to be brought from one environment to another: > all those machine-specific constants in the engineering libraries > are a good example. There's a lot more to this than programmer introduced things. The changes in arithmetic can be killers. For example code that has no built in anything running on, say a VAX, may not fly on an IBM due to the drastic differences in floating point arithmetic. To be truly portable, then the concept of a standard language would have to be much more extensive than it is. -- Steve Stevenson fpst@hubcap.clemson.edu (aka D. E. Stevenson), fpst@clemson.csnet Department of Computer Science, comp.hypercube Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634-1906 (803)656-5880.mabell