From: garylscott@sbcglobal.net   
      
   On 10/5/2024 11:42 AM, Clive Page wrote:   
   > On 04/10/2024 21:36, Gary Scott wrote:   
   >> On 10/4/2024 3:04 PM, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:   
   >>> On Fri, 4 Oct 2024 12:13:52 +0200, R Daneel Olivaw wrote:   
   >>>   
   >>>> but not as friendly as   
   >>>>         character*28 txthdr /'Text header, with a comma   ' /   
   >>>   
   >>> With all these additions to Fortran, I keep wondering “when will they   
   >>> finish reinventing PL/I?”. Because at an early point in the   
   >>> development of   
   >>> PL/I, they were going to call it “FORTRAN VI”.   
   >>>   
   >>> One PL/I feature still missing from Fortran is VARYING strings.   
   >>   
   >> Fortran does have a form of varying string...just not super convenient   
   >> to use in the general case.   
   >   
   >   
   > Yes but for practical purposes it only works for scalars, not arrays.   
   > Since nearly all the rest of Fortran is based on the (unstated, but   
   > widely-understood) principle that arrays are first-class objects, this   
   > is a real pity.   
   >   
   Yes.  I've however never found the fixed length strings to be a major   
   hindrance.  I know exactly how they work and have been able to   
   adequately mimic/store variable length strings within reasonably sized   
   fixed length buffers (various methods).  I really liked the flexibility   
   of string/text processing of IBM's DCF/Script/GML.  How that was   
   powerful string handling.   
      
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