From owner-sc22wg5@dkuug.dk Wed May 28 19:56:20 2003 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by dkuug.dk (8.12.8p1/8.9.2) id h4SHuK9J078390 for sc22wg5-domo; Wed, 28 May 2003 19:56:20 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from owner-sc22wg5@dkuug.dk) X-Authentication-Warning: ptah.dkuug.dk: majordom set sender to owner-sc22wg5@dkuug.dk using -f Received: from atmos.uiuc.edu (gale.atmos.uiuc.edu [128.174.80.128]) by dkuug.dk (8.12.8p1/8.9.2) with ESMTP id h4SHsGEc078375 for ; Wed, 28 May 2003 19:56:15 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from hirchert@atmos.uiuc.edu) Received: by atmos.uiuc.edu (CommuniGate Pro PIPE 3.4.8) with PIPE id 3036916; Wed, 28 May 2003 12:55:22 -0500 X-Spam-Status: Scanner Called Received: from [128.174.80.212] (account hirchert HELO atmos-khirchert.atmos.uiuc.edu) by atmos.uiuc.edu (CommuniGate Pro SMTP 3.4.8) with ESMTP id 3036914; Wed, 28 May 2003 12:55:11 -0500 Message-Id: <5.2.0.9.2.20030528123216.0298f8c8@mail.atmos.uiuc.edu> X-Sender: hirchert@mail.atmos.uiuc.edu X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.2.0.9 Date: Wed, 28 May 2003 12:55:10 -0500 To: j.k.reid@rl.ac.uk From: Kurt W Hirchert Subject: Name of the language Cc: sc22wg5@dkuug.dk In-Reply-To: <200305221604.h4MG48S1032762@dkuug.dk> References: <200305022236.h42MaukZ085984@dkuug.dk> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Sender: owner-sc22wg5@dkuug.dk Precedence: bulk 1. I like Fortran 2003 better than Fortran 2000 for all the reasons previously cited. When people earlier suggested changing the name from to Fortran 2000 to a more current date, they were told (among other things) that it was too much work to keep changing the date and that we should leave it 2000 until we knew what the "right" date was. Now that we know what the "right" date, they are being told it shouldn't be changed because we left it 2000 for too long. I dislike this kind of game playing where there is never an appropriate time to consider an issue. 2. I like Fortran 03 even less than Fortran 2000. If this standard were delayed a few months, we could end up with confusion between Fortran 04 and FORTRAN IV. If we get this revision out on time and take 7 years to do the next revision, that revision could end up Fortran 10, which sounds a lot like the name of the product I used to use on our DECsystem 10. 66, 77, 90, and 95 were acceptable because the numbers were large enough to be recognized as abbreviations for dates, but such 2-digit abbreviations are much less acceptable for current dates. (Cf., Windows 95 and Windows 98 vs. Windows 2000) 3. As a possible compromise between the Fortran 2003 and Fortran 2000 camps, I suggest Fortran 2K. People have been using F2K enough as an abbreviation for Fortran 2000 that I believe that there should be little, if any, trouble for people to connect the name Fortran 2K with the previous postings about Fortran 2000, but 2K is not a specific date and thus avoids at least some of the problems alluded to by the Fortran 2003 camp. -- Kurt W Hirchert hirchert@atmos.uiuc.edu UIUC Department of Atmospheric Sciences +1-217-265-0327