Fortran-90 (was 8x) questionnaire ...

[Pawan Rewari]

Please respond directly to me and pass it on to peers in your organization
who may be interested in responding to this.

The Sun Fortran compiler along with its toolset has evolved into the
industry's leading edge compiler in performance, robustness, and ease of
use (call me if you have questions, I'd love to debate this with you :=)).
Just wait for the next release !!

With Fortran-90, the latest industry standard, around the corner we would
like to take this opportunity to solicit feedback from anyone interested
in the future of Fortran on Sun.

Ask not what Sun can do for you, but ... :=)

Seriously, I would really appreciate your feedback in whatever form.  This
will be an invaluable aid in helping us make the correct decisions so that
we can continue providing you with the highest quality Fortran compilation
and development system.

Please contact me if you have any question at all. 

Pawan Rewari (Pondy)
Fortran Product Manager

PS: Please forward this to people in your organization who may be
    interested in responding.

:---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Future directions of Fortran - Fortran-90 (was Fortran-8x).

Please return all feedback to:
e-mail		pr at sun.com
voice		(415) 336-4651
land		Pawan Rewari
		2550 Garcia Av, MS 12/33
		Mountain View, CA 94043
fax		(415) 968-6396

Thanks,

Pawan Rewari
Fortran PM.

Brief introduction to the ANSI std Fortran-90.
==============================================

Since 1978, the technical committee responsible for the development of
Fortran standards, X3J3, has been laboring to produce a much needed modern
version of the Fortran programming language. The current ANSI standard is
Fortran-77. The next ANSI revision is Fortran-90 (was called Fortran 8x
till recently). The standard is expected to be finalized and approved by
Fall 1990. We expect the NIST validation suite for Fortran-90 in the 1992
time-frame.

Fortran-90 has three major areas of extension over ANSI Fortran-77:
1) Standardization of existing practices, 2 issues:
   - adoption of existing practice "as is"
   - incorporation of functionality using new syntax
2) Constructs for modular programming and better software engineering (eg.
   operator overloading, interface blocks).  The new features are similar to
   those of other modern programming languages.
3) Novel features for improved numerical computation, with array
   constructors enabling direct manipulation of arrays

Fortran-90 is upwards compatible with ANSI Fortran-77.  Sun Fortran-77 is
ANSI Fortran-77 with VMS extensions.  The implementation of some Sun
extensions, notably pointers and structures, are incompatible with the new
standard.

We solicit input from Sun's Fortran customers on the following:
===============================================================

1. Are you tracking the Fortran-90 standard ?  If not would you want to
   attend Sun sponsored seminars on Fortran-90 ?

2. Fortran-90 functionality can be loosely described in the following
   classes of features. How would you rank them in order of importance to
   you? Why ?  (eg, f,c,d,e,b,a,g)

   a)	New source form
	New control structures: DO ... END DO; SELECT CASE

   b)	New data typing
	"structures"
	Dynamic memory allocation
	Pointers
	User defined types

   c)	New "Module" facilities
	package logically related data and code
	new interface features: keyword argument passing, default
	arguments, operator overloading

   d)	New array syntax and features enabling direct manipulation
	of arrays.

   e)	IO changes
	namelist, nonadvancing IO

   f)	Performance

   g)	Tool to translate Sun Fortran-77 to Fortran-90

3. Do you plan on doing new code development in Fortran-90, as opposed to
   Sun Fortran-77 ?

4. Do you plan to convert your Fortran-77 programs that use constructs
   incompatible with Fortran 90 to an equivalent Fortran 90 construct, or do
   you plan on continued use of a FORTRAN-77 compiler?

5. The transition to Fortran-90 will not be seamless for any compiler that
   implements VMS extensions. ANSI has ratified X3.9-1978, so for the US
   there will be two Fortran standards in effect - (Fortran-77 and
   Fortran-90).

   Would you prefer that Sun provide:

   a) One Fortran compiler which is certified compliant to both
      standards and supports Sun Fortran-77 extensions (with a flag to specify
      which one to use) 
   b) Two separate compiler offerings: Sun Fortran-77 and Fortran-90.  
      Please elaborate.

6. Do you expect Fortran-90 to become a checklist item for qualifying
   hardware vendors ? If yes, in what time frame ?  (Given that the standard
   will probably be approved by end 1990 and the validation suite available
   in 1992).

7. What training requirements do you project for Fortran-90 ?  What style
   of training do you prefer? 

   Please rank your preferences for Fortran-90 training below:

   a)	Self-training.
   b)	Sun supplied self study courses.
   c)	Sun "sponsored" training, onsite.
   d)	Sun training, offsite.
   e)	Rely on third parties, universities and etc.
	Please provide comments on any of these categories or any
	other suggestions.

8. How would you most like the Sun Fortran environment extended (again
   rank in priority, comment and feel free to add new things):

   a)	a more Fortran aware debugger
   b)	ability to debug optimized code
   c)	parallel primitives of some flavor sensible to the Sun
	environment of the '90s
   d)	fortran syntax directed editor
   e)	listings with line numbers 
   f)	Fortran-90 style compiler
   g)	Bindings to arbitrary Sun system libraries.
   h)	flint - a fortran utility equivalent to C's lint.

This list is not meant to be all inclusive, nor is it a commitment to
provide any of these named tools. Feel free to add new items. Please
provide explanations of your ranking.

9. General comments. (Feedback on current Fortran).

10. Can I get in touch with you to discuss your feedback ?

	Please provide the following information:
	Name	: 
	Company	: 
	Title	: 
	e-mail	: 
	Tel	: 

Thank you very much for your participation. It should be borne in mind
that this survey is part of our long range planning, and one or more
releases may already have their functionality set. Your comments will be
extremely useful in helping us to provide you with the right tools you
need for Fortran programming in the future.