(j3.2006) LinkedIn Question re Why TYPEALIAS Not in Fortran 2003

[Malcolm Cohen]

>             I have forgotten why TYPEALIAS was dropped late in the
> process.  Does anyone remember why this happened?
...

>1.  It was the wrong thing to do.  New types (not synonymns) are more
>useful, and can do everything that type aliases can do -- but not vice
>versa.

This was not a consensus position.  The only votes we took went the synonym 
way, so I think this was a minority position.

>2.  The material in the draft was wrong.

Yes, the description in the draft was badly flawed.  Not unfixable, but...

>3.  We didn't have time, interest, or energy to make it right.

Yes, it was very late in the process and
(a) we decided we could not fix it in the time available.,
(b) there was not complete consensus on how to best fix it anyway (see 1).

Cheers,
-- 
................................Malcolm.