British Computer Society Fortran Specialist Group
Minutes of the meeting held on Monday 14th November 1977 in Lecture Theatre
4.34 Royal School of Mines, Imperial College Computer Centre, Prince Consort
Road, London SW7.
Present: M Lewis (Chairman) ECMWF
P A Clark Rothamsted Experimental Station
R G Grosvenor Honeywell I.S.
D Hill C C A
D J Holmes Rolls Royce Ltd (Bristol)
N W James ICCC
P N Jenkins MOD (PEE(S))
M E Kearsey MOD (PEE(S))
P Loftus Marconi Elliott Avionic
System Ltd (GEC)
J D Murchland University College London
G Newell Ferranti Ltd
K Normington Lanchester Polytechnic
T L Van Raalte MOD (PE) AWRE
J Roberts-Jones Liverpool City Council
J D Wilson University of Leicester
G L Harding (Secretary) ICCC
1. Approval of minutes of previous meeting
The minutes of the meeting of 16th May were approved after various spelling
mistakes had been noted.
2. Matters arising from the minutes
Two people had been proposed to join the steering committee. They are
J D Wilson and J Roberts-Jones who were approved.
Requests were made for a copy of Richard Ragan's notes from his lecture on
16th May to be incorporated into the minutes (Appendix A).
G Harding reported that the meeting at Datafair 77 (October 5th) had been
very successful and thanked D Muxworthy, P A Clark and M Lewis for their
talks.
3. Activities of other Fortran Groups
3.1 X3J3 committee activities
It was reported that X3J3 were studying how to approach "Fortran 82".
Dr Murchland suggested that there should be research into the require-
ments of a new Fortran and possibly papers written not forgetting
other language structures. It was thought that this group could co-
ordinate suggestions for X3J3. G Harding agreed to receive any
correspondence on this matter.
3.2 Other Fortran group activities
3.2.1 CODASYL Fortran Group
P A Clark reported on two meetings of the group and gave information how
to obtain the report on the "CODASYL Fortran Data Base facility". [Appendix B).
3.2.2 Netherlands Fortran Study Group
G Harding reported on the comment sent by the Netherlands group to X3J3.
Considerable discussion arose over the "SEQUENCE" statement and whether
the collation sequence was a function of the software or hardware.
4. Working Party reports
There were no working party reports.
5. Other Fortran activities
5.1 Implementation developments
It was asked if anyone knew ot a Fortran 77 compiler being written for
System 4, ICL 1900 series or any other "end of range" machine. It was
mentioned that the Fortran compiler written at Lanchester Polytechnic
for ICL 1900's had some Fortran 77 facilities. Full details are available
from K Normington of Lanchester Polytechnic.
(Anyone who knows about any Fortran 77 compiler being written for "end of
range" machines is asked to contact G Harding who will make the in-
formation available to the group).
5.2 Fortran Publications
J D Murchland reported on Fortran related papers published in recent
SIGPLAN's.
6. BCS Business
G Harding reported that the November 24th issue of Computing would have
a special report on software. Part of this would consist of an edited
conversion between himself and members of the APL and PL/1 groups.
7. Any other business
J D Murchland asked it anyone knew of standard Fortran coding conversions.
e.g. special forms of variable names. It was mentioned that the sub-
routine names in the NAG library follow a standard form based on the SHARE
classifications.
8. Date of next meeting
The next meeting will be on February 6th.
Afternoon
Mr Gordon-Clark gave a talk on the state oF Industrial Fortran.
Status of the Draft Proposed FORTRAN Standard
[This is a detailed (22 page) description of the differences between Fortran 66
and Fortran 77. It has not been digitized. For a summary of the major
differences see the minutes of the FSG meeting of 16 May 1977.]
THE CONFERENCE ON DATA SYSTEMS LANGUAGES
(CODASYL)
BOX 124
928 GARDEN CITY DRIVE
MONROEVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA 15146
COMMITTEE: CODASYL FORTRAN DATA BASE DATE: June 20, 1977
TO: Whom It May Concern FROM: Chester M. Smith, Jr.
Chairman
CODASYL FORTRAN DBMLC
214 Computer Building
University Park, PA
16802
SUBJECT: CODASYL FORTRAN DATA BASE FACILITY
The Committee is proud to announce that, after almost three years
of working to add a CODASYL-type data base facility to FORTRAN, we have
produced a 135-page document that we believe provides this facility.
The report has been printed by the Canadian Federal Government and
can be ordered from:
Materiel Data Management Centre
Department of Supply and Services
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
K1A 0S5
The price is $4.00 per copy, including packing and mailing. Remittances, which
must be sent with all orders, may be in either Canadian or U.S. funds and
should be made payable to the Receiver General of Canada. when ordering, please
quote title precisely:
CODASYL FORTRAN DATA BASE FACILITY J.O.D.
1 lO-GP-2, January, 1977
Your review of this report and any comments you may have will be
greatly appreciated.
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