(j3.2006) (SC22WG5.4631) [ukfortran] Comment on N1904 cont'd

[Malcolm Cohen]

BTW, please don't send to both WG5 and J3 ... the J3 list gets the WG5 list 
already.

>It appears to me to be a good idea to enforce interoperable
>type and type parameters for non-assumed-type dummy entities.

Absolutely.

>With respect to John's point about C1255 I am not sure I agree;
>the constraint points to paragraphs where interoperability of
>variables is defined, and I think it is there that the extensions
>to the concept of interoperability for variables should be placed;

I disagree.

These are not interoperable in the old sense of having the same representation, 
but in the new sense of having an automatic conversion between the Fortran 
entity and the C entity.  (Indeed, this was explicit in older drafts of the TS.)

Although it is certainly *possible* to mangle interoperable to include the 
interconvertible, that is actually more work than just fixing C1255. 
Substantially more work.  We've already got text for procedure interoperability 
that handles them defined as now (viz outside the interoperable umbrella), and 
that text would be completely broken.

I feel reasonably confident that we can fix C1255 reliably and without doing 
damage to the rest of the standard.  I am also reasonably confident that 
changing tack and "fixing" 15.3.5/6 will reliably be broken and cause further 
damage elsewhere in the standard.

Cheers,
-- 
................................Malcolm Cohen, Nihon NAG, Tokyo.