VMS Features Requiring -xl or -vax=spec

You get most VMS features automatically without any special options. For a few of them, however, you must add the -xl option on the f77 command line.

In general, you need this -xl option if a source statement can be interpreted for either a VMS way of behavior or an f77 way of behavior, and you want the VMS way of behavior. The -xl option forces the compiler to interpret it as VMS FORTRAN.

Note also the --vax=spec option, which allows specification of these VMS extensions individually. See the Fortran User's Guide for details.

Summary of Features That Require -xl[d]

You must use -xl[d] to access the following features:

• Unformatted record size in words rather than bytes (-xl)

• VMS-style logical file names (-xl)

• Quote (") character introducing octal constants (-xl)

• Backslash (\) as ordinary character within character constants (-xl)

• Nonstandard form of the PARAMETER statement (-xl)

• Debugging lines as comment lines or FORTRAN statements (-xld)

• Align structures as in VMS FORTRAN (-xl)

Details of Features That Require -xl[d]

Here are the details:

• Unformatted record size in words rather than bytes

  In f77, direct-access, unformatted files are always opened with the logical record size in bytes.

  If the -xl[d] option is not set, then the argument n in the OPEN option RECL=n is assumed to be the number of bytes to use for the record size.

  If the -xl[d] option is set, then the argument n in the OPEN option RECL=n is assumed to be the number of words, so the compiler uses n*4 as the number of bytes for the record size.

  If the -xl[d] option is set, and if the compiler cannot determine if the file is formatted or unformatted, then it issues a warning message that the record size may need to be adjusted. This result could happen if the information is passed in variable character strings.

  The record size returned by an INQUIRE statement is not adjusted by the compiler; that is, INQUIRE always returns the number of bytes.

  These record sizes apply to direct-access, unformatted files only.

• VMS-style logical file names

  If the -xl[d] option is set, then the compiler interprets VMS logical file names on the INCLUDE statement if it finds the environment variable, LOGICALNAMEMAPPING, to define the mapping between the logical names and the UNIX path name.

  You set the environment variable to a string of the form:

  ---

  	"lname1=path1; lname2=path2;  "
  

  ---

  Remember these rules for VMS style logical file names:

  • Each lname is a logical name and each path1, path2, and so forth, is the path name of a directory (without a trailing /).

  • It ignores all blanks when parsing this string.

  • It strips any trailing /[no]list from the file name in the INCLUDE statement.

  • Logical names in a file name are delimited by the first : in the VMS file name.

  • It converts file names from lname1:file to the path1/file form.

  • For logical names, uppercase and lowercase are significant. If a logical name is encountered on the INCLUDE statement which is not specified in the LOGICALNAMEMAPPING, the file name is used, unchanged.

• Quote (") character introducing octal constants

  If the -xl[d] compiler option is on, a VMS FORTRAN octal integer constant is treated as its decimal form.

  Example: VMS octal integer constant:

  ---

  	JCOUNT = ICOUNT + "703 

  ---

  The above statement is treated as:

  ---

  	JCOUNT = ICOUNT + 451

  ---

  If the -xl[d] option is not on, then the "703 is an error.

  With -xl[d], the VMS FORTRAN notation "703 signals f77 to convert from the integer octal constant to its integer decimal equivalent, 451 in this case. In VMS FORTRAN, "703 cannot be the start of a character constant, because VMS FORTRAN character constants are delimited by apostrophes, not quotes.

• Backslash (\) as ordinary character within character constants

  If the -xl[d] option is on, a backslash in a character string is treated as an ordinary character; otherwise, it is treated as an escape character.

• Nonstandard form of the PARAMETER statement

  The alternate PARAMETER statement syntax is allowed, if the -xl[d] option is on.

  Example: VMS alternate form of PARAMETER statement omits the parentheses:

  ---

  	PARAMETER FLAG1 = .TRUE. 

  ---

• Debugging lines as comment lines or FORTRAN statements (-xld)

  The compiler interprets debugging lines as comment lines or FORTRAN statements, depending on whether the -xld option is set. If set, they are compiled; otherwise, they are treated as comments.

  Example: Debugging lines:

  ---

  	REAL A(5) / 5.0, 6.0, 7.0, 8.0, 9.0 / 
  	DO I = 1, 5 
  		X = A(I)**2 
  D 		PRINT *, I, X 
  	END DO 
  	PRINT *, 'done' 
  	END

  ---

  With -xld, this code prints I and X. Without -xld, it does not print them.

• Align structures as in VMS FORTRAN

  Use this feature if your program has some detailed knowledge of how VMS structures are implemented. If you need to share structures with C, you should use the default: no -xl

Unsupported VMS FORTRAN

Most VMS FORTRAN extensions are incorporated into the f77 compiler. The compiler writes messages to standard error for any unsupported statements in the source file. The following is a list of the few VMS statements that are not supported.

• DEFINE FILE statement

• DELETE statement

• UNLOCK statement

• FIND statement

• REWRITE statement

• KEYID and key specifiers in READ statements

• Nonstandard INQUIRE specifiers

  • CARRIAGECONTROL

  • DEFAULTFILE

  • KEYED

  • ORGANIZATION

  • RECORDTYPE

• Nonstandard OPEN specifiers

  • ASSOCIATEVARIABLE

  • BLOCKSIZE

  • BUFFERCOUNT

  • CARRIAGECONTROL

  • DEFAULTFILE

  • DISP[OSE]

  • EXTENDSIZE

  • INITIALSIZE

  • KEY

  • MAXREC

  • NOSPANBLOCKS

  • ORGANIZATION

  • RECORDTYPE

  • SHARED

  • USEROPEN

• The intrinsic function, %DESCR

• The following parameters on the OPTIONS statement:

  • [NO]G_FLOATING

  • [NO]F77

  • CHECK=[NO]OVERFLOW

  • CHECK=[NO]UNDERFLOW

• Some of the INCLUDE statement

  Some aspects of the INCLUDE statement are converted. The INCLUDE statement is operating system-dependent, so it cannot be completely converted automatically. The VMS version allows a module-name and a LIST control directive that are indistinguishable from a continuation of a UNIX file name. Also, VMS ignores alphabetic case, so if you are inconsistent about capitalization, distinctions are made where none are intended.

• Getting a long integer--expecting a short

  In VMS FORTRAN, you can pass a long integer argument to a subroutine that expects a short integer. This feature works if the long integer fits in 16 bits, because the VAX addresses an integer by its low-order byte. This feature does not work on SPARC systems.

• Those VMS system calls that are directly tied to that operating system

• Initializing a common block in more than one subprogram

• Alphabetizing common blocks so you can rely or depend on the order in which blocks are loaded. You can specify the older with the -M mapfile option to ld.

• If you use the defaults for both of the following:

  • The OPEN option BLANK=

  • The BN/BZ/B format edit specifiers

    then formatted numeric input ignores imbedded and trailing blanks. The corresponding VMS defaults treat them as zeros.