FORALL(ID:7384/for075)

User-extensible conversational dialect of Fortran 

User-extensible conversational dialect of Fortran

John Kerr, Long Pocket Laboratories, Indooroopilly, Australia

Related languages
FORTRAN 77 => FORALL   Extension of
References:
  • Kerr, John "FORALL: an extensible FORTRAN system for conversationally accessing subroutine libraries" Softw. Pract. Exper. 10, 11 (Nov. 1980), 889-896. view details Abstract:
    The implementation of a user-extensible FORTRAN system is described. The control syntax in which all arrays may be referenced by name, is outlined, including language-like extensions. A summary of the algorithms implemented is tabulated. Facilities for the user to add algorithms to the system are described and the methods of handling arrays outlined. Features to facilitate portability are mentioned.

  • Alanen, J. review of Kerr 1979 view details Abstract: FORALL is a FORTRAN system for all who want to complement statistical packages to handle user-defined commands, from simple operations like writing a file to complex ones with numerous options like regression analysis. Portability was a key design requirement. FORALL is implemented in standard FORTRAN, documentation is maintained in machine-readable form, and various mechanisms for defining and implementing user'supplied commands conform to current good programming practices.

    To date FORALL has been chiefly used for non-orthogonal anova and botanical composition estimation by around 50 users of the CSIRO computing network. A public. standard version of FORALL has evolved because most of these users lack sufficient FORTRAN experience to create a personal version with extensions.

    The ideas and experiences outlined in this short paper could be particularly helpful to readers facing a computer conversion' lacking an appropriate statistical package, or frequently rewriting a relatively small but unpredictable sequence of operations.
          in ACM Computing Reviews 22(03) March 1981 view details