BCS FORTRAN SPECIALIST GROUP
The next meeting of the British Computer Society's
Fortran Specialist Group will be held on Thursday 7 February
1991 from 10.30am to 4.30pm at BCS HQ, 13 Mansfield Street,
London.
The morning meeting will be normal business and will
include reports from X3J3 and ISO representatives.
The afternoon session on "Compilers for Fortran" is
being organised by the University of Salford's Software
Marketing Group. It is intended that there will be a series
of talks about compilers in a workshop atmosphere.
Please bring this notice to the attention of any col-
leagues likely to be interested: we particularly welcome
newcomers to the Group whether members of BCS or not.
Click here for the minutes of this meeting. Links below
are to specific sections of the minutes.
AGENDA
10.30 am 1. Welcome; coffee and biscuits
11.00 am 2. Apologies for absence
3. Minutes of the last meeting
4. Matters arising
5. Reports from X3J3/ISO Representatives
6. Programme and venues for 1991
7. BCS and any other business
2.00 pm 8. "Compilers for Fortran"
Workshop organised by
Salford Software Marketing Ltd.
Introduction: Dave Vallance
Technical Specialists: David Bailey
Tony Webster
Robert Chafer
John Young, Secretary.
Tel: 0734 814111 Ext 6292.
BRITISH COMPUTER SOCIETY
FORTRAN SPECIALIST GROUP
FEBRUARY 1991 NEWSLETTER
HEADQUARTER'S MOVE TO SWINDON
The move of BCS HQ to Swindon has finally been settled and was
recently announced in Computer Weekly. As the moving date
varies from end of February to mid-March depending on who is
asked the next meeting of the Group will be unaffected. The
venue of the 1991 AGM will be circulated to members as soon as
possible but will definitely be in London.
AN APOLOGY AND A PLEA
Circumstances since last Summer have contributed to delays in
both writing and posting notices and the minutes of meetings,
and the non-appearance of a Newsletter. The Chairman and the
Secretary offer their sincere apologies for any inconvenience
caused and hope members will continue to support the Group.
The Chairman, John Wilson, gave notice at the 1990 AGM that he
would not be able to continue as Chairman after May 1991.
John has been the longest serving officer in the 21 years of
the Group and a sincere thankyou goes to him from current and
past members. The Group seeks a new Chairman for 1991-92 and
nominations are welcome.
The Secretary, John Young, will be stepping down in 1992 due
to changes in his employment. John is finding his task more
difficult as, among increased commitments, he is currently
Chairman of an international Working Group which has the task
of producing a new standard for the regionalisation of the
Earth based on seismicity. So if anyone would like to become
Secretary this year nominations would be welcome.
DRAFT STANDARD FORTRAN MANUALS
On a recent visit to BCS it was discovered that there were
still 69 copies of the draft standard Fortran document
(DP1539: 1989) that were sold in conjunction with the Fortran
Forum 1989 remaining in the cellars of HQ. Even though this
document is now out-of-date it is still a useful reference to
the new Fortran standard. Hence the Group is offering free
copies on a first-come first-served basis provided you pick
them up from BCS HQ or alternatively a copy will be sent to
you for a nominal P&P charge of £2.50. An order form is
provided below but a telephone call would suffice.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return to: Steve Mersereau, The British Computer Society,
13 Mansfield Street, London, WlM OBP.
Please send ... copies of the DPl539 (1989) document at £2.50 each p&p.
I enclose a cheque (payable to BCS Fortran Specialist Group) for £.....
Signed ................................................... Date .....................
Address ..............................................................................
21st BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS
At the last meeting of the Group in October it was decided not
to go ahead with the 21st Birthday Celebrations but to wait
instead for the 25th, the Silver! (see Minutes for fuller
details). We know some members were quite disappointed, not
least Brian Meek who wrote to the Chairman, John Wilson, with
the following proposal:-
"Nevertheless an opportunity to do something, less formal and
official but at least with a good chance of a guest speaker or
two, comes at the March 18-22 meeting of WG5. For example,
available FSG members could (in principle) be invited to the
WG5-IST/5 drink-in on Tue March l9 (though it would have to be
on payment of some fee if they are not registered WG5 people
or IST/5 members) and it would (in principle) be possible to
book somewhere for dinner that evening, again on an individual
pay-your-whack basis (including WG5 people) and ask an over-
seas (US?) WG5 member to be guest speaker".
No doubt this proposal will be discussed more fully at
the next meeting but anyone interested should contact either
Brian direct or the Secretary, John Young.
A SERIES OF COINCIDENCES
I find life sometimes throws up an unusual happening, an
unplanned event, an interesting experience, a coincidence.
The June 1990 meeting of the Group heaped upon me a series of
coincidences. I expected this meeting to be a quiet affair as
I had not been able to circulate a notice or complete the
minutes of the previous meeting in May. Indeed it was only
those stalwart members of the Group who had written the date
in their diaries who turned up. On arrival at BCS HQ we found
ourselves in the Wilkes room instead of our usual venue of the
Gill room. I got talking to Peter Holland who has attended
meetings for 20 years and it came up in conversation that the
Computer Conservation Society was meeting that evening at the
Science Museum. The subject of the meeting was old computer
software in which I have a considerable interest having
written a lot of it in my youth. So I went along with Peter
in the evening and joined up. The audience found the subject
interesting as a lot of them were the pioneers of computing in
this country and included Professor Wilkes. After the meeting
there was a move to de-camp to a local Italian Restaurant and
not having eaten I joined the throng. About 20 of us, young
and old, descended into the basement of the Restaurant for an
excellent meal presided over by Maurice Wilkes.
John Young.