JTC1/SC22 N3483

From:ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22
Programming languages, their environments and system software interfaces
Secretariat:  U.S.A.  (ANSI)
 
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22 N3483
 
TITLE:
Abstract for Committee Draft Revision of ISO/IEC 1539-1:1997

DATE ASSIGNED:
2002-08-22
 
SOURCE:
SC 22/WG 5 Convenor (J. Reid)

BACKWARD POINTER:
N/A
 
DOCUMENT TYPE:
Other document (Open)

PROJECT NUMBER:
22.02.01.01
 
STATUS:
For information.  This abstract is circulated as reminder that ITTF will now
require an abstract for all drafts submitted to ITTF for FDIS ballot and/or
publication.  For further information, see SC 22 N3382.  

ACTION IDENTIFIER:
FYI
 
DUE DATE:
  
DISTRIBUTION:
Text

CROSS REFERENCE:
SC 22 N3382
 
DISTRIBUTION FORM:
Open
 
Address reply to:
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22 Secretariat
Matt Deane
ANSI
25 West 43rd Street
New York, NY  10036
Telephone:  (212) 642-4992
Fax:             (212) 840-2298
Email:  mdeane@ansi.org


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                                            ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG5 N1494
                          

        Committee Draft revision of ISO/IEC 1539-1:1997 - 
       Programming Language Fortran - Part 1: Base language

                          Abstract

Fortran is a computer language for scientific and technical
programming that is tailored for efficient run-time execution on a wide
variety of processors. It was first standardized in 1966 and the
standard has since been revised three times (1978, 1991, 1997).
The revision of 1991 was major and those of 1978 and 1997 were
relatively minor. This proposed fourth revision is major and has been
made following a meeting of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG5 in 1997 that
considered all the requirements of users, as expressed through their
national bodies. 

The significant enhancements in the 1991 revision were dynamic storage,
structures, derived types, pointers, type parameterization, modules, 
and array language. The main thrust of the 1997 revision was in 
connection with alignment with HPF (High Performance Fortran).

The major enhancements for this revision are 

(1) Derived type enhancements: parameterized derived types, improved
    control of accessibility, improved structure constructors, and
    finalizers.

(2) Object oriented programming support: type extension and inheritance, 
    polymorphism, dynamic type allocation, and type-bound procedures.

(3) Data manipulation enhancements: allocatable components, deferred
    type parameters, VOLATILE attribute, explicit type specification in
    array constructors, pointer enhancements, extended initialization 
    expressions, and enhanced intrinsic procedures.

(4) Input/output enhancements: asynchronous transfer, stream access, 
    user specified transfer operations for derived types, user
    specified control of rounding during format conversions, named
    constants for preconnected units, the flush statement, regularization
    of keywords, and access to error messages.

(5) Procedure pointers.

(6) Support for IEC 60559 (IEEE 754) exceptions.

(7) Interoperability with the C programming language.

(8) Support for international usage: access to ISO 10646 4-byte
    characters and choice of decimal or comma in numeric formatted
    input/output.

(9) Enhanced integration with the host operating system: access to
    command line arguments, environment variables, and processor 
    error messages.

In addition, there are numerous minor enhancements. 

Except in extremely minor ways, this revision is upwards compatible
with the current standard, that is, a program that conforms to the 
present standard will conform to the revised standard. 

The enhancements are in response to demands from users and will keep
Fortran appropriate for the needs of present-day programmers without
losing the vast investment in existing programs.