(j3.2006) (SC22WG5.5066) [ukfortran] J3 work plan

[Van Snyder]

On Tue, 2013-08-06 at 12:30 +0900, Malcolm Cohen wrote:
> One might have thought that Arithmetic IF ought to have been frowned
> on in their style guides for the last 35 years too, for fairly obvious
> reasons.

Many of these codes began development in FORTRAN IV, well before it was
standardized in 1966.  In newer developments, arithmetic IF was
discouraged, and indeed rarely used.  The already-deleted features were
sufficiently rarely used that it was possible to replace them, but
arithmetic IF was pervasive.  Funding for maintenance for these codes
has continually dwindled.  Even funding for new development for, say,
the uniquely-challenging entry, descent and landing for the Mars Science
Laboratory, was sketchy.

Malcolm can criticize their practices and second-guess their decisions
if he wants to, but that doesn't wish their problems away.  He might
have better success writing, as a British Subject living in Japan, to
the US Congress, urging sufficient funding to cope with these problems.
We haven't had much success, especially since the Golden Age of Goldin.