Minutes of the BCS Fortran Specialist Group Meeting
held at BCS HQ, 13 Mansfield Street, London
on 10 May 1990
Present: Mike Bennett National Power
Miles Ellis Oxford University
Mike Geary NAG
E Golton RAL
Carol Hewlett LSE
Peter Holland SSL
David Holmes Rolls Royce plc
Chris Lazou ULCC
Brian Meek King's College, London
David Muxworthy University of Edinburgh
Mike Nunn CCTA
Les Russell AWE
Paul White Met Office
John Wilson Leicester University
John Young PE-MOD
1. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
Apologies for absence were received from Michael Roth,
Lawrie Schonfelder and David Vallance.
2. MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING [25/01/90]
The Secretary again apologised for not chasing up the
summaries of the talks on Fortran on PCs and for not contacting
the Rutherford and Appleton Laboratory concerning the Group's
visit in October.
The Secretary apologised for the short notice of the meeting
and the Annual General Meeting. He apologised for the lack of
a nomination form for officers of the Group due to lack of time
and lack of suggestions for a form in the BCS Handbook.
Report from X3J3
The Secretary apologised to the meeting for not officially
writing to John Reid thanking him for his contribution to the
Group. [Secretary's Note: A thank you letter has now been
forwarded to John].
Scottish Sub-Group
The Scottish Sub-Group meeting on Expert Systems took place
on the 7 February 1990.
21st Birthday Celebrations
The Secretary apologised for the lack of a comments and
suggestions form for the 21st Birthday Celebrations being
sent with the minutes. At this point in the meeting the 21st Birthday
Celebrations were discussed out of order and is reported under
Review of Forthcoming Meetings.
Parallel Processing Specialist Group
The Parallel Processing Specialist Group's evening meeting
on 14 March 1990 had to be cancelled because of the
unavailability of the visiting speaker. Hence there was no flier
included with the Minutes and the reason for delayed posting.
However, the request for collaboration between the Groups
remains.
March 1990 Newsletter
In the paragraph Draft Standard Fortran Manuals there is a
'be' missing in the sixth line.
3. MATTERS ARISING
Scottish Sub-Group
The Chairman, John Wilson, had received a report from the
Scottish Sub-Group convenor, John Bruce, about the Expert Systems
meeting which was attended by 19 people. This meeting was held
in Glasgow but the meeting due to be held in Dundee in the latter
half of April had been cancelled. John Bruce is planning a
meeting in Newcastle on Parallel Processing in September.
4. REPORT FROM WG5 REPRESENTATIVE
John Wilson reported on the WG5 meeting held in London from
26 February - 2 March 1990 for which he acted as Secretary. He
told the meeting that the minutes were now available but required
some additional items from the convenor, Jeanne Martin, before
publication. The resolutions taken at the meeting are attached
as Appendix A.
John went on to describe the work of the WG5 meeting. There
were 30 delegates from 7 countries attending and 2 observers.
The three main items of work were to discuss the vote on the
draft standard, to respond to the international comments on the
draft standard, and to study the draft S8.1l4, the latest S8.
A drafting committee, a response committee, and an editorial
committee were set-up as well as subgroups to review chapters of
the document.
John then reported that the SC22 vote was 12 YES, 2 NO, 6
NOT VOTING, with the 2 NO's being Germany and the United States
but with comments. This is a sufficient majority to accept the
new international Fortran standard.
WG5 resolved (Appendix A, L2) that the formal name of the
language be "Fortran" rather than "FORTRAN" and that the informal
name be "Fortran 90" (in line with the resolution taken by X3J3).
WG5 also urged all countries to adopt Fortran 90 as the sole
international Fortran standard and to withdraw F77. The WG5
response to the Berlin document was in draft form but there had
been doubts about the success of the recent X3J3 meeting.
It was noted that all the Country votes listed in
Appendix A should be increased by 1.
5. FUTURE FORTRAN STANDARDS
Brian Meek asked the Chairman if he could explain to the
meeting the circumstances of the publication of his article
called "Battle Rages On At The Fortran Front" which had been
published on 3 May 1990 in "Computer Weekly". The article that
had appeared had been condensed to a quarter of the original with
substantial editing. The intention of the article had been to
give the history of Fortran 8x and a balanced view of the current
controversy. In essence, the article bore little resemblance to
his original.
Brian said what he wanted to bring across was that the
Fortran Community needed to consider how new Fortran standards
will be addressed. The WG5 meeting in Rotterdam in August 1990
will be discussing the future of Fortran. The adoption of
Fortran 77 as a separate standard by the US was unfortunate but
should not be allowed to create an 'international incident'. In
future, the Fortran standard would be agreed internationally and
it was unlikely X3J3 would be delegated to produce the standard.
Brian Meek suggested that the evolution of the Fortran
language be considered by local groups and that the UK will
produce papers/ideas/comments for the Rotterdam meeting. He
asked the Group for ideas on how Fortran will develop in future
and to submit these to David Muxworthy or to attend a meeting.
The UK urgently needs a coherent view and anyone with positive
ideas is invited to come forward. ISO has to have control of
future standards and a start should be made to revise Fortran 90.
Brian speculated that in future ISO would have a working
group on Fortran standards but that the US would have some
logistic problems with this arrangement. There was no doubt that
there would be an International Committee for Fortran of some
form as had happened with other languages like Modula 2 and
Prolog with WG providing editorial bodies.
There followed a general discussion on future Fortran
Standards. Mike Nunn asked how evolution works and was told
items not included in the standard will be worked on for
inclusion in the next standard. Any of the Fortran bodies can
submit work items. There would be a re-appraisal of the current
standard in 5 years. X3J3 has to remain in existence to review
public comments. Chris Lazou said that Parallel Processing
Fortran was one area to be looked at in future and possibly
included in a future Fortran standard as a "superstructure".
Items included in the Fortran standard as addenda could be used
for language evolution.
The meeting agreed that the idea of deprecation was a useful
concept but as presented in the current standard perhaps too
complicated. There should be a minimum of change between
standards and perhaps flags used to indicate deprecated features.
A note of where manufacturers change functionality should be
made. Perhaps old features should, after all, be removed.
6. REVIEW OF FORTHCOMING MEETINGS
21st Birthday Celebrations
The sub-group convenor, Mike Nunn, suggested that the Group
choose a venue in London for its 21st Birthday Celebrations in
1991. For example, Imperial College had a nice meeting room at
reasonable rates with a dinner as an optional extra. Brian Meek
said that King's College also had a reasonable venue. He
suggested that an evening meeting would require the option of an
overnight stay. A day meeting could be part of a normal Group
meeting. It was also suggested that the Science Museum would
make a good venue and that an approach could be made to the
Computer Conservation Society.
A straw vote of the meeting revealed that those present
preferred a day meeting but only half would be able to come to
an evening meeting.
The Vice-Chairman, Chris Lazou, suggested that the Group
needed commitments to attend. He suggested that a venue be
picked and a deposit required. Even if the full cost was not
known the deposit could still be discounted. The new Treasurer
was to organise this. Ideas of any kind were requested.
The suggestion of having vintage wines of significant dates
in Fortran history was made. Mike Nunn was asked to organise
this. Mike was also asked if he could draft a short note on his
proposals for the 21st Birthday Celebrations.
Visit to RAL - The Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
The Group has arranged a visit to RAL on Thursday, 25
October 1990. E Golton, who works at RAL, offered to organise
the day for the Group. The morning will be normal Fortran
business followed by demonstrations during the lunch hour. In
the afternoon the Group will meet at the Atlas building for a
series of talks and demonstrations. Full details of travel
arrangements and talks would be circulated nearer the time.
Meetings 1991
The three-monthly pattern of meetings of the Group had been
slightly disrupted by the new requirement to hold the AGM in May
and the uncertainty of a venue for meetings in London when BCS
HQ moves. The meeting decided on the following provisional dates
for meetings in 1991.
February 1991, 21st Birthday Celebrations
May 1991, AGM
August 1991, Visit?
November 1991
7. ANY OTHER BUSINESS
Seminar on 386 Compiler
The Salford Software Marketing Group was to hold a seminar
on its 386 Fortran compiler on 5 June 1990 from 10.30 - 17.30.
The Group would be demonstrating software tools and graphics
packages. The cost was to be £50 + VAT.
Course on DAP Fortran
A letter had been received from the Marketing Manager of the
Centre for Parallel Processing of Queen Mary and Westfield
College of the University of London concerning the training
course for the AMT DAP with Fortran-Plus and requesting a copy
of the announcement be included in the next mailing. As this was
a commercial organisation this was agreed at the usual cost.
Distinguished and Honorary Fellowships
The Chairman, John Wilson, had been asked for nominations
for the BCS Distinguished and Honorary Fellowships. After some
discussion on the suitability of candidates from the World of
Fortran no names were put forward.
Fortran Maintenance Tool
The Chairman, John Wilson, had received a Fax from Business
Marketing Services Limited (BMSL) concerning a Fortran
Maintenance Tool. John had replied that it was similar to the
NAG TOOLPACK and FLINT but appeared to be more comprehensive.
However, it lacked an editor which would be useful for correcting
and re-compiling Fortran programs.
Dynamic Strings in ISO Fortran
John Wilson had been asked to review a technical paper
called "Dynamic Strings in ISO Fortran" by Lawrie Schonfelder &
J S Morgan but had passed it to NAG for review.
Minutes of the Netherlands Fortran Specialist Group
The Secretary, John Young, reported that he was regularly
receiving the minutes of the Dutch Group. It was interesting to
note the large amount of work being done by the Dutch Group for
the WG5 meeting in Rotterdam.
It was also interesting to note that the Netherlands
Standards Institute had questioned the formal status of the Dutch
Group as an NNI subcommittee after setting up the WG5 meeting.
(The lunch break was taken at this point).
8. REPORT FROM X3J3 REPRESENTATIVE
The new X3J3 representative, Miles Ellis, reported on the
X3J3 meeting held at Lake Tahoe in Nevada. The meeting was
fairly boring and was largely concerned with tidying up the draft
standard. There was also discussion of the notes from the WG5
meeting held in London [see Item 4]. The main technical issue
was on forward references to procedures.
At the end of the meeting X3J3 voted to forward the draft
standard document to X3 and then to ISO. The meeting did not
vote to forward it as an ANSI standard and X3J3 had made enough
changes to justify a third American public review period. With
the adoption of Fortran 77 as a separate American standard there
was now the possibility of three ANSI Fortran standards. The
document was now in its final form except for the correction of
typographical errors.
9. ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Chairman's Address
The Chairman, John Wilson, explained to the meeting that one
of the reasons for the postponement of the AGM from 5 April 1990
had been the introduction of new guidelines from the BCS which
covered topics such as the conduct of an AGM. These guidelines
require that Specialists Groups ideally hold their AGM in May
and John then read out the appropriate sections from Appendix B
and Appendix D of the Guidelines.
The minutes of last year's AGM had been included in the
normal minutes of the meeting of 20 April 1989 and these were
then discussed. It was decided that the AGM would be reported
as a separate set of minutes and that all meetings in future
would have a master set of minutes which would be signed by the
Chairman.
The Chairman, John Wilson, then reported on the year's
activities. There had been four meetings of the Group during the
year. Last year's AGM had been held in Oxford and the meeting
was given a demonstration of the FLINT package. The June meeting
was held at BCS HQ and the afternoon session was a review of
Fortran on PC's presented by Mike Gunn who then introduced 5
other speakers who spoke about their own experiences. The
November meeting was decamped to the RCN next door to BCS HQ
where the subject was Expert Systems. The January meeting held
on the day of the Storm was concerned with Parallel Processing.
The average attendance at these meetings was 15. The Group
had also published 3 one-page newsletters during the year.
The major event of the year was the Fortran Forum 89 which
had been held in London and Edinburgh on the 27/28 September.
Attendance was disappointingly low at both venues particularly
in Scotland. The draft Fortran manual accompanying the Forum had
sold very slowly but the majority of the cost of printing had now
been recovered.
The Group had contributed to BSI activities during the year
and members had been involved in the WGS meeting in Ispra and the
meeting in London. The Group still had members attending X3J3
meetings.
John Wilson then concluded by saying that he felt that the
work of the Group should change. There should be less emphasis
now on the standards work and increasing interest in the
emergence of compilers. The trend had already started and would
be continuing.
Treasurer's Report
The retiring Treasurer, Miles Ellis, presented his report
(Appendix B). He reported that this was the first year of
centralised accounting and that the new system was not working
very well. The computer printouts sent to Treasurers made no
sense.
Miles's report separated the Group's income and expenditure
into 3 accounts. The Internal Account is the Group's Budget
within BCS and covered internal costs incurred by the Group.
The Current Account is the Group's Working Account and the Gold
Account is its Savings Account.
Miles proposed to send the Final Accounts to BCS but not in
the same form as requested by BCS. After some discussion he
agreed to send in the form as requested by BCS which required
very few numbers.
Miles was not standing again as Treasurer of the Group due
to other commitments. The more onerous tasks of Treasurer as now
required by BCS was, perhaps, the 'final straw' in his decision
to stand down. [Secretary's note: A letter of thanks for Miles's
contribution as Treasurer over the last 3 years has been sent.]
The Group has to appoint an Auditor or somebody to check the
Group's accounts. The meeting decided that the new Treasurer
should appoint an Auditor for the coming year. Miles said that
Michael Roche would be the Auditor for this year's accounts.
Election of Officers
The Chairman, John Wilson, stood down and the Secretary,
John Young, took the Chair and called for nominations for
Chairman. Miles Ellis proposed John Wilson and this was seconded
by Chris Lazou and there being no other nominations John Wilson
was duly elected as Chairman.
John Young then vacated the Chair and John Wilson then
called for nominations for Secretary. Chris Lazou proposed John
Young and this was seconded by Mike Nunn and there being no other
nominations John Young was duly elected as Secretary.
For the post of Treasurer, E Golton was proposed by Chris
Lazou and seconded by John Young and there being no other
nominations E Golton was duly elected as Treasurer.
For the post of Vice-Chairman, Chris Lazou was proposed by
John Wilson and seconded by Miles Ellis and there being no other
nominations Chris Lazou was duly elected as Vice-Chairman.
[Minutes for the AGM part of this meeting were re-issued as a separate document
in April 1991 for use at the 1991 AGM. They are appended to these minutes.]
Any Other Business
It was agreed that the new Treasurer would change any Bank
Forms required by the Bank and BCS.
Miles Ellis presented copies of his book "FORTRAN 77
Programming" to John Wilson and to David Muxworthy.
David Muxworthy of Edinburgh University then presented his
review of the past 20 years of the Fortran Specialist Group. His
notes have been presented as a set of minutes of the very first
meeting of the Group in Appendix C.
John Young
Secretary
14 September 1990
ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG5-N489
Resolutions, London WG5 Meeting, February 26 - March 2, 1990
L1. Processing of the second DP1539
That WG5
- recommends that the draft proposed international Fortran standard be ANSI
X3J3 document S8.114 as amended by ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG5 N502,
- notes that this recommendation will resolve both negative votes on the draft
standard,
- notes that the changes from the second DP1539 are primarily those requested
in WG5 Ispra resolutions I4 and I11 (July 1989),
- notes that the detailed responses to member body ballots are contained in
ISO/IEC JTC/SC22/WG5 N495,
- requests X3J3, as editor, to review and complete items contained in WG5 N502
at its meeting 115 (April 30 to May 4, 1990),
- directs its convenor to prepare the final document after X3J3 meeting 115 and
to forward it to SC22 for DIS processing by May 31, 1990. In the event that
X3J3 makes changes beyond N502 the convenor may conduct a 30 day WG5 letter
ballot on accepting the document with these changes.
Individual votes: 28 yes - 2 no - 0 abstain Country votes: 7-0-0
L2. Name of the Language
That WG5 resolves that the formal name of the language be "Fortran", rather
than "FORTRAN", and agrees that the informal name be "Fortran 90".
Individual votes: 29-0-1 Country votes: 7-0-0
L3. One Worldwide Standard
That WG5, having reviewed events subsequent to the WG5 Ispra meeting (July
1989), reaffirms its resolution I5 that the draft proposed Fortran standard
become the sole international Fortran standard and that there be no subset.
Individual votes: 29-0-1 Country votes: 7-0-0
L4. Withdrawal of FORTRAN 77
That WG5 recommends to SC22 that SC22 requests each member body to withdraw its
FORTRAN 77 standard at the earliest opportunity.
Individual votes: 27-2-1 Country votes: 6-0-1
L5. Response to Berlin Resolution 134
That WG5, in order to respond to SC22 Berlin resolution 134 on collaboration
between WG5 and X3J3 to reconcile differing positions on the retention of
FORTRAN 77, requests its convenor to draft a letter to SC22 describing the
sequence of events since the Berlin meeting, to ask that X3J3 review the letter
at its meeting 115 (April 30 to May 4, 1990), and to submit it to WG5 for
review at its Rotterdam meeting (August 13-17, 1990) prior to forwarding it to
SC22 for the SC22 AG meeting on October 10-12, 1990.
Individual votes: 28-1-1 Country votes: 7-0-0
L6. Future Evolution of the Language
That WG5 believes that the concept of language evolution is important and that
this issue should be on the agenda for the August 1990 WG5 meeting; further, it
urges members to provide discussion material for that meeting.
Individual votes: 30-0-0 Country votes: 7-0-0
L7. Appreciation of X3J3
That WG5 thanks most warmly the chair, office-bearers and members of X3J3 for
their work in developing DP1539, especially in the rapid production of document
S8.114, and expresses its appreciation for bringing this project towards a
successful conclusion.
Passed by unanimous consent
L8. Appreciation for Drafting a Varying String Module
That WG5 expresses its appreciation to Lawrie Schonfelder for preparing a draft
Fortran 90 module for the new work item JTC1.22.02.02 allocated to WG5 to
develop a module that provides varying character string functionality.
Passed by unanimous consent
L9. Appreciation for Publication of Second DP 1539
That WG5 expresses its appreciation to Loren Meissner for obtaining permission
to publish the second DP1539 in Fortran Forum.
Passed by unanimous consent
L10. Votes of Thanks
That WG5 wishes to express its appreciation to the Convenor (Jeanne Martin),
the vice-chair (Bert Buckley), the secretary (John Wilson), the hosts (the BSI
Fortran Panel) and to BSI and its staff who have contributed to the success of
the meeting, and to King's College London Computing Centre for hosting the
social event.
Passed by unanimous consent
British Computer Society
Fortran Specialist Group
Final Accounts 1989-90
A) Internal Account
600 Budget Allocation for 1989-90 600.00
63 Meeting expenses 128.75
359 BCS Services 293.71
199 Speaker's expenses 198.70
621 621.16
0 Event expenditure (red star) 69.00
0 Printing of Fortran 8x standards 1556.00
(621) Total expenditure (2246.16)
less
0 Income from sale of Fortran 8x standards 105.00
(21) Surplus returned to HQ/ (Deficit) (1541.16)
B) Current Account
2041 Balance at 30/4/89 117.71
Income
110 Subscriptions 5.00
Sale of F8x standards 367.80
22 Via HQ 650.00
100 From Gold account 400.00
232 1422.80
Expenditure
Forum expenses 687.27
Meeting costs 10.90
Speakers' expenses 220.17
Scottish expenses 80.30
(2129) (989.64)
(1896) Excess of income over expenditure 433.16
118 Balance at 30/4/90 (carried over) 550.87
118 Balance at 30/4/90 (brought forward) 550.87
plus cheques paid in but not credited 345.00
less provision for VAT (45.00)
0 300.00
118 Current account assets at 30/4/90 850.87
C) Gold Account
0 Balance at 30/4/89 2080.50
Income
2000 From current a/c 0.00
181 Interest 259.09
2181 259.09
Expenditure
2000 To current a/c 400.00
2081 Excess of income over expenditure (140.91)
2081 Balance at 30/4/90 1939.59
2198 TOTAL GROUP BANK ASSETS AT 30/4/90 2790.46
0 less deficit on internal account (1541.16)
2198 NETT GROUP ASSETS AT 30/4/90 1249.30
T.M.R. Ellis
Hon. Treasurer
9th May 1990
BRITISH COMPUTER SOCIETY
FORTRAN SPECIALIST GROUP
THE FIRST TWO DECADES
by
David Muxworthy
Edinburgh University Computing Service
Notes from the Talk celebrating the 20th Birthday
of the BCS Fortran Specialist Group on 10th May 1990
slide 1
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slide 2
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Early FSG Working Parties
January 1970
Analyse existing standards Ian Pyle
Comparison of existing compilers Brian Shearing and
David Muxworthy
Extension to Fortran John Gatehouse
April 1970
Extensions to ASI Fortran IV Brian Shearing
Adaptation to conversational use Peter Bradly
Fortran on small machines Mike Garside
April 1971
Free format David Marwick
Mini computers Mike Garside
Diagnostics Paul Samet
Extensions Brian Shearing
1975
FORTREV review Colin Day
April 1976
Preprocessors John Murchland
Group Promotion & Information Alan Clarke
December 1976
Review Codasyl FDBMLC JOD Geoff Stacey
slide 3
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Public Presentations
1971 Two-day Workshop Edinburgh
1972 High-Level Language Conference York
1973 Datafair 73 Nottingham
1975 Datafair 75 London
1977 Datafair 77 London
1978 Fortran Forum London
1981 Fortran Forums London and Edinburgh
1985 Fortran Forum London
1987 Fortran Forum London
1989 Fortran Forums London and Edinburgh
Ordinary Meetings outside London
Feb 1980 Edinburgh
Nov 1981 Salford
Oct 1986 Reading
Jul 1987 Coventry
Apr 1989 Oxford
slide 4
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Presentations at FSG meetings
1975
ICL 2900 Fortran
Compiling Fortran on Minicomputers
The SHELTRAN Preprocess
Optimising Compilers for Fortran
1976
SHORTRAN - a Conversational Fortran translator
Univac Fortran Systems
Fortran Systems on DEC PDP8 and PDP11
Language Standards and Algorithm Editing
Experiences with Fortran and a CODASYL Data Base System
Fortran on an International Timesharing Network
1977
A Large Scale Fortran Project
Tools for a Large Subroutine Package
The dpANS Fortran
Industrial Fortran
1978
PL/I - a Successor to Fortran
Cray-1 Fortran Compiler
1979
Experience with the CODASYL Fortran interface
The ICL DAP
Fortran for the GEC 4000 series
The Use of Computers in Weather Forecasting
1980
Experience with programming in Fortran 77
Array Processing in Genstat
The Real Precision Proposals for Fortran
Portability of Fortran 77
Fortran Language Requirements
1981
Tools for Numeric Software Engineering
Fortran 8X Array Processing
Fortran I, Ratfor and the Software Tools Package
Parallel Processing - What is it?
Portable Fortran 77 Compilers
1982
How to make Portable Packages with almost any dialect of Fortran
Proposals for Fortran 8X
Using Standard Fortran - Past, Present and Future
The Cray-1 as a Fortran Engine
1983
GKS and Fortran
Array Processing in Fortran 8X
Fortran Optimisation
Derived Data Types in Fortran
1984
Toolpack - The Implementation Phase
The ISO Fortran Meeting in Geneva
The ICL Fortran 77 Optimising Compiler
Mixed Fortran and Prolog
1985
DEC Fortran and Program Development Aids
The BS Method for Specifying Requirements for Fortran Language Processors
The NCC/FSTS Fortran 77 Compiler Validation Scheme
Using DEC Computers in the field of Dynamic Simulation
1986
Floating Point Accuracy and Numerical Precision in Fortran
FPV - a floating point validation Package
A user's experience with the NAG Floating Point verifier
The New ETA Supercomputer
ECMWF - Its Role, Computing Activities and Fortran Experiences
1987
The Implementation of Toolpack
Software Tools
The AMT DAP-3
Productivity Tools for Fortran Programmers
Fortran Compilers on Modestly Parallel Processors
1988
The Array Processor Features in Fortran 8X
Implementation of Array Processor Extensions in Fortran 8X
Ada versus Fortran
Experiences with Ada and Fortran
The Salford FTN77/386 Compiler
The Portable Package Framework
1989
Short History of Fortran Preprocessors
Automatic Vectorisation
FLINT
PC Fortran Symposium
Expert Systems: general aspects and special properties of statistical front ends
The application of Knowledge-based Systems to enhance existing Fortran Software
1990
Parallel Processing
Fortran Harness for Parallel Computers
slides 5 and 6
--------------------------------------------------------
FORTRAN SPECIALIST GROUP OFFICERS
This slide listed officers from 1970 to 1990.
An updated list is now at http://www.fortran.bcs.org/pastoff.php
slide 7
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The following document from the late 1970s was appended to the minutes.
SOME ACTIVITIES OF
THE FORTRAN SPECIALIST GROUP CF THE BRITISH COMPUTER SOCIETY
Introduction
The B.C.S. Fortran Specialist Group was formed in January 1970
largely by the initiative of the first Chairman and founder member, Mr
J. S. Gatehouse (then with G.E.C. - English Electric Ltd.) Since its
formation, the main activity of the Group has been attempting to
influence the evolution of the proposed new American National Standard
for Fortran. We did this originally by submitting to the ANSI
Committee a complete set of proposals drafted by a- Working Party of
the Group. This was well received by ANSI and still forms one of their
official working documents.
At meetings we continue studying the minutes of the intervening
ANSI meetings, and then send our comments on any decisions made or
problems still unresolved. These comments become an Appendix to the
minutes of the next ANSI meeting. In this way we act as a forum in the
UK for those interested in influencing the development of Fortran.
This exchange of minutes has been complemented by personal
contacts, including attendance at ANSI meetings by members of the
Group when in the USA.
We are particularly lucky that our Group has a regular core of
active and knowledgeable members from a wide mix of jobs including
makers of hardware and software, both large and small; universities;
bureaux; government establishments; industrial and commercial
concerns.
Objectives
The original objectives of the Group, as published in the March
1970 Issue of Computer Bulletin were:
(a) To form a Forum for the discussion of problems concerned with
establishing and maintaining Fortran standards.
(b) To work in association with the BCS Standards Committee and
through them with national and international standardisation bodies.
However, the scope of Group activities has been widened to
include matters other than 'Fortran Standards'. The revised objective
now reads:
'To undertake activities associated with any aspects of Fortran'.
Meetings
Meetings are held about five or six times a year in London. Any
interested person may attend, free of charge, Usually meetings last
all day (11.0 a.m. To 3.30 p.m.) And we hope they are sufficiently
worthwhile that Employers can justify sending members to attend.
Meetings usually take the following form. In the morning there
are discussions on recent standards activities, studies of the
activities of other Fortran Groups and progress reports of Working
Parties. In the afternoons, we usually have a speaker to talk on a
Fortran-related topic.
Meetings are publicised by circulation of agenda to members and
by notices in the Computer press.
Minutes of meetings are circulated to all members of the Group.
Members of the Group who are not members of the Society can obtain
minutes, but are charged (currently £1 per annum) for circulation to
cover distribution costs.
Conferences
Occasionally conferences are organised. These tend to be arranged
to correspond with the initial specification and final review phases
in the development cycle of an ANSI standard. By this means, it is
possible to get better public response and better feedback to ANSI,
particularly if some of the ANSI committee are present.
Organisation and officers
The Group is run by a Steering Committee consisting of Chairman,
Vice-chairman, Secretary and several other members. Members of this
committee are elected annually in accordance with the rules for all
BCS Specialist Groups.
Members of the committee are responsible for the running of the
Group including such things as organisation of meetings, conferences
and other activities, publication of minutes and agenda of meetings,
controlling income and expenses and generally promoting the interests
of the Group, its members and the stated views of the Society.
Much assistance in this work is obtained from the permanent staff
of the Technical Division of the Society.
Working Parties
On occasions when there is a requirement for studies going beyond
those held at normal meetings, and when voluntary support is
forthcoming, Working Parties are formed.
In the past these have covered topics such as: Extensions to ANSI
Fortran, Standards for conversational Fortran, Standards for
small-machine Fortran, Review of some dialects of Fortran, Proposals
for free-format input/output, Fortran subsets, Catalogue of Fortran
programming aids and Review of draft proposed ANS Fortran standard.
Current Working Parties include those to: Study Fortran preprocessors
and Review the CODASYL Fortran database interface specifications.
A permanent working party exists for Group promotion and
information.
Representatives
Members of the Group are representatives on many British,
European and International Committees dealing with Fortran
standardisation. In particular members represent the BCS on the
British Standards Institute Co-ordinating Committee for Data
Processing Standards 13 (Programming Languages).
Publications
In addition to publications by individual members of our Group
(such as the excellent 'Fortran Techniques' by Dr. Colin Day), the
Group has tried to promote standards and knowledge of Fortran in the
UK. We have done this by writing articles (such as the thoroughly
readable 'Short 'History of Fortran Standards' by David Muxworthy
published in the Computer Bulletin), and also by trying to spot and
correct errors appearing in print - particularly in the Society's own
publications. On several occasions we have written letters correcting
errors of logic or fact concerning Fortran.
Contributions to the Society
At the BCS's Annual Conferences, members of the Group have given
a series of presentations on the subject of Fortran. These have been
well attended in the past.
On behalf of the Society we vet programs written in Fortran and
submitted for publication in its journals. Few people realise that the
words 'portable' and 'standard' are not synonymous, and we have been
able to make many an otherwise hopelessly machine-dependent item of
software more widely useful where its author's lack of experience of
other machines could not hope to match the breadth of knowledge
contained in the Group.
Additionally we referee papers and review books concerning
Fortran, and provide speakers for Branch meetings.
Re-issue of minutes for the AGM business part of the meeting.
BCS Fortran Specialist Group held at BCS HQ,
13 Mansfield Street, London on 10 May 1990
Present: Mike Bennett National Power
Miles Ellis Oxford University
Mike Geary NAG
E Golton RAL
Peter Holland SSL
David Holmes Rolls Royce plc
Chris Lazou ULCC
David Muxworthy University of Edinburgh
Mike Nunn CCTA
Les Russell AWE
Paul White Met Office
John Wilson Leicester University
John Young PE-MOD
1. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
Apologies for absence were received from Carol Hewlett,
Brian Meek, Michael Roth, Lawrie Schonfelder and David Vallance.
2. CHAIRMAN'S ADDRESS
The Chairman, John Wilson, explained to the meeting that one
of the reasons for the postponement of the AGM from 5 April 1990
had been the introduction of new guidelines from the BCS which
covered topics such as the conduct of an AGM. These guidelines
require that Specialists Groups ideally hold their AGM in May and
John then read out the appropriate sections from Appendix B and
Appendix D of the Guidelines.
The minutes of last year's AGM had been included in the
normal minutes of the meeting of 20 April 1989 and these were
then discussed. It was decided that the AGM would be reported
as a separate set of minutes and that all meetings in future
would have a master set of minutes which would be signed by the
Chairman.
The Chairman, John Wilson, then reported on the year's
activities. There had been four meetings of the Group during the
year. Last year's AGM had been held in Oxford and the meeting
was given a demonstration of the FLINT package. The June meeting
was held at BCS HQ and the afternoon session was a review of
Fortran on PC's presented by Mike Gunn who then introduced 5
other speakers who spoke about their own experiences. The
November meeting was decamped to the RCN next door to BCS HQ
where the subject was Expert Systems. The January meeting held
on the day of the Storm was concerned with Parallel Processing.
The average attendance at these meetings was 15. The Group
had also published 3 one-page newsletters during the year.
The major event of the year was the Fortran Forum 89 which
had been held in London and Edinburgh on the 27/28 September.
Attendance was disappointingly low at both venues particularly
in Scotland. The draft Fortran manual accompanying the Forum had
sold very slowly but the majority of the cost of printing had now
been recovered.
The Group had contributed to BSI activities during the year
and members had been involved in the WG5 meeting in Ispra and the
meeting in London. The Group still had members attending X3J3
meetings.
John Wilson then concluded by saying that he felt that the
work of the Group should change. There should be less emphasis
now on the standards work and increasing interest in the
emergence of compilers. The trend had already started and would
be continuing.
3. TREASURER'S REPORT
The retiring Treasurer, Miles Ellis, reported that this was
the first year of centralised accounting and that the new system
was not working very well. The computer printouts sent to
Treasurers made no sense.
Miles's report separated the Group's income and expenditure
into 3 accounts. The Internal Account is the Group's Budget
within BCS and covered internal costs incurred by the Group. The
Current Account is the Group's Working Account and the Gold
Account is its Savings Account.
Miles proposed to send the Final Accounts to BCS but not in
the same form as requested by BCS. After some discussion he
agreed to send in the form as requested by BCS which required
very few numbers.
Miles was not standing again as Treasurer of the Group due
to other commitments. The more onerous tasks of Treasurer as now
required by BCS was, perhaps, the 'final straw' in his decision
to stand down.
The Group has to appoint an Auditor or somebody to check the
Group's accounts. The meeting decided that the new Treasurer
should appoint an Auditor for the coming year. Miles said that
Michael Roche would be the Auditor for this year's accounts.
4. ELECTION OF OFFICERS
The Chairman, John Wilson, stood down and the Secretary,
John Young, took the Chair and called for nominations for
Chairman. Miles Ellis proposed John Wilson and this was seconded
by Chris Lazou and there being no other nominations John Wilson
was duly elected as Chairman.
John Young then vacated the Chair and John Wilson then
called for nominations for Secretary. Chris Lazou proposed John
Young and this was seconded by Mike Nunn and there being no other
nominations John Young was duly elected as Secretary.
For the post of Treasurer, E Golton was proposed by Chris
Lazou and seconded by John Young and there being no other
nominations E Golton was duly elected as Treasurer.
For the post of Vice-Chairman, Chris Lazou was proposed by
John Wilson and seconded by Miles Ellis and there being no other
nominations Chris Lazou was duly elected as Vice-Chairman.
5. ANY OTHER BUSINESS
It was agreed that the new Treasurer would change any Bank
Forms required by the Bank and BCS.
Miles Ellis presented copies of his book "FORTRAN 77
Programming" to John Wilson and to David Muxworthy.
John Young
Secretary
9 April 1991