From J.L.Schonfelder@liverpool.ac.uk Mon Mar 6 10:09:15 1995 Received: from mailhub.liverpool.ac.uk (mail.liv.ac.uk) by dkuug.dk with SMTP id AA04754 (5.65c8/IDA-1.4.4j for ); Mon, 6 Mar 1995 11:09:54 +0100 Received: from pop.liv.ac.uk by mail.liv.ac.uk with SMTP (PP); Mon, 6 Mar 1995 10:09:20 +0000 Date: Mon, 6 Mar 1995 10:09:15 GMT From: Lawrie Schonfelder Subject: Re: F2K To: "Dr A.C. Marshall" Cc: comp-fortran-90@mailbase.ac.uk, SC22WG5@dkuug.dk Message-Id: Priority: Normal Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII X-Charset: ASCII X-Char-Esc: 29 On Thu, 2 Mar 1995 11:30:38 +0000 (GMT) Dr A.C. Marshall wrote: > From: Dr A.C. Marshall > Date: Thu, 2 Mar 1995 11:30:38 +0000 (GMT) > Subject: F2K > To: comp-fortran-90@mailbase.ac.uk > > I thought I chuck in my two-cents regarding Fortran 2k. > > I also think that making INTENT / INTERFACEs mandatory is too heavy handed. > People KNOW that these features are a good idea and anybody with any sense > will use them. The last thing we want to do is to scare off F77 users which > will happen if their program will not compile under an F2K compiler. > > Personally, one feature I would like to see is a new visiblity attribute, > say, RESTRICTED, which when applied to module entities allows them to be > visible in other modules but not in programs or procedures. This would > allow for even greater software reuse, enhanced efficiency and security. > > Adam Marshall > I think Adam has a very good idea here. When I was writing the string module and subsequently looking at using it. It was clear that any reasonable standard module of this sort could only provide a basic set of facilities and for safety and flexibility the internals of the module are rightly hidden. However, when writing use programs in specific applications areas there were some special extra facilities that could be produced more efficiently if access to the internals could be made. You want to have the extra dependent module have access but for all the usual reasons you dont want to export the internals to the end-user program units. The idea of a RESTRICTED visibility attribute which allowed importing modules to access such entities but not other program units would provide this capability. Adam, why dont you write this up as a formal request to WG5 for consideration as a F2K requirement. -- Dr.J.L.Schonfelder Director, Computing Services Dept. The University of Liverpool, UK e-mail J.L.Schonfelder@liv.ac.uk phone: +44(51)794-3716 fax: +44(51)794-3759