Re: Fortran 2003 keywords

From: glen herrmannsfeldt (gah_at_ugcs.caltech.edu)
Date: 12/16/03 

Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2003 19:51:33 GMT

beliavsky@aol.com wrote:

> Here is a list of what I believe to be the new keywords in Fortran
> 2003, compiled from Reid's paper "The New Features of Fortran 2003",
> the online documentation for Lahey.NET, and other sources. I compiled
> the list because I want to avoid inadvertently using these words as
> variable names in new code that I write.

Does this mean that Fortran lost its "no reserved words" tradition,
or are you just trying to avoid confusing yourself?

It would seem that if you didn't know it was a keyword, it wouldn't
confuse you. Is is only confusing if you know the keyword,
and aren't sure which use is being made of the word.

There have been stories that COBOL programmers must always keep
the reserved word list near by, as COBOL has a large list, and
often they are convenient words to use to name variables.

PL/I was specifically designed not to have reserved words, as it
has a variety of features that many users will never use. It didn't
seem reasonable to expect users to know the words for such features.

C has a relatively small number of reserved language keywords, but
the names of many library routines are considered reserved, and
should not be used.

Java has about as many reserved language keywords as C. It seems that
with careful programming, class names and such do not conflict
with other uses for those names.

I always considered no reserved words a feature of Fortran.
It would be sad to see that feature gone.

-- glen

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