Intel Fortran has a notation to specify C string literals by appending the letter C at the end of the string. See here for an example: http://www.intel.com/software/products/compilers/docs/flin/main_for/mergedProjects/lref_for/source_files/pgcchcs.htm
It would be nice to have this, or something similar, in gfortran. With Intel Fortran, it causes the string to interpret backslash sequences as in C, and append a NUL character. I suggested to Intel the idea of implementing a .C. unary string operator to do the same thing (I had seen it suggested on c.l.f.), with the idea of trying to fit extensions into vendor intrinsic modules instead of the traditional non-standard syntax approach. They said it would be less standard-conforming, maybe because defined-unary operators cannot be used in initialization expressions. They also stated that the C-suffix approach was a well-establish extension, although neither gfortran nor Sun have it. I am requesting that gfortran support Intel's C-string notation to improve the portability of C-interop code, if you think the extension is reasonable. It would be nice for Fortran compiler developers to agree on some other common convention, no matter what it is. One negative aspect of Intel's notation is that it would be good to support C escape sequences independent of the NUL terminator. FYI: I also suggested that they look into gfortran's work on implementing new character kinds such as UTF-8. That will also be very useful for reliable C interop. -- Summary: Request for C string literal syntax Product: gcc Version: unknown Status: UNCONFIRMED Severity: enhancement Priority: P3 Component: fortran AssignedTo: unassigned at gcc dot gnu dot org ReportedBy: jkrahn at nc dot rr dot com http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=37224