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.