Re: COBOL Question

[Seymour J Metz]

Have they added array operations to Fortran?


--
Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz
http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3

________________________________________
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] on behalf of Bob 
Bridges [robhbrid...@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 9, 2020 12:35 AM
To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: COBOL Question

I haven't written anything in FORTRAN since some time in the late '70s.  But
even much more recently I heard it's regarded by number crunchers, engineers
say, as the best language for sheer speed.  Not so great for report writing
and formatting.

---
Bob Bridges, robhbrid...@gmail.com, cell 336 382-7313

/* If a problem has a single neck, it has a simple solution. */

-----Original Message-----
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On
Behalf Of Frank Swarbrick
Sent: Monday, June 8, 2020 21:22

I've been teaching myself (modern) Fortran the last few weeks.  Just
because.  It has an interesting behavior that I kind of like.

Normal IF statement:

if (something) then
   <statement 1>
   <statement 2>
end if

But it also has a "one line IF" (not sure offhand of the Fortran "name" for
this):

if (something) <single statement>

<single statement> must be on the same line as the if and the condition
(unless you specify the "line continuation character"), and of course only
one statement is allowed.  Kind of like the C/Java if statement with out a
statement block, but less dangerous because of the "on the same line"
requirement.  Here is one way I've used it in practice.

call get_command_argument(1, host)
if (inet_addr(host) .lt. 0) call error_stop("Host must be in dotted decimal
format.")
call get_command_argument(2, port_str)
read (port_str, '(i5)', iostat = iostat) port ! convert string 'port_str' to
integer 'port'
if (iostat .ne. 0 .or. port .le. 0) call error_stop("Port must be positive
numeric (0-32767).")

Using "if/then" instead of just "if" I'd have had this:

call get_command_argument(1, host)
if (inet_addr(host) .lt. 0) then
    call error_stop("Host must be in dotted decimal format.")
end if
call get_command_argument(2, port_str)
read (port_str, '(i5)', iostat = iostat) port ! convert string 'port_str' to
integer 'port'
if (iostat .ne. 0 .or. port .le. 0) then
    call error_stop("Port must be positive numeric (0-32767).")
end if

Given by absolute druthers I would have the then clause part of the single
line if instead of the if/end if, but its still pretty nice regardless, as
it doesn't cause as much "clutter" as error handling often does.

On a side note, I think Fortran has done a much better job than COBOL of
adding "modern" features (starting with Fortran 90 in 1990).  If only the
COBOL "designers" had followed in their footsteps.

And in my mind Fortran had even more to "make up" for in regards to it's
less than ideal beginnings.  Which Fortran can even be forgiven for then,
being I believe about five years older than COBOL (Cobol?).

________________________________
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> on behalf of
Bob Bridges <robhbrid...@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, June 7, 2020 12:35 PM

The only language I can think of off-hand that doesn't require some sort of
END to close a DO (I'm sure there are others) is ISPF.  But, in REXX at
least, I never use single-statement DOs.  I see them all the time, and I
don't get it.  Like this:

  if x=0 then do
    x=x+1
  end

Or, more painfully:

  select
    when idx="T" then
      do
        countt=countt+1
      end
    when idx="U" then
      do
        countu=countu+1
      end
    when idx="V" then
      do
        countv=countv+1
      end
    when idx="W" then
      do
        countw=countw+1
      end
    otherwise
      do
        countx=countx+1
      end
  end

Why?  If it were easier to read, I might sympathize.  But it's harder, not
easier.

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