(j3.2006) paper J3/14-174 (again)

[Robert Corbett]

I still do not understand the intent of paper J3/14-174.
The paper proposes not to have the next standard forbid
a standard-conforming program from connecting a single
file to more than one unit at a time.  Is the intent of
the paper that the results of all I/O operations on
different units connected to the same file are
processor dependent?

Consider, for example, the program

       PROGRAM MOUT
         OPEN (10, FILE='MYFILE', FORM='UNFORMATTED', STATUS='REPLACE')
         OPEN (11, FILE='MYFILE', FORM='UNFORMATTED', STATUS='OLD')
         WRITE (10) 1, 2, 3, 4
         WRITE (10) 5
         WRITE (11) 6
         WRITE (11) 7
         REWIND (10)
         CLOSE (11)
         DO
           READ (10, END=99999) I
           PRINT *, I
         END DO
99999   CLOSE (10)
       END

When I compile and run this program using Oracle Solaris
Studio Fortran, I get the output

  6
  7
  5

I see nothing in the standard that requires this result,
and I suspect that other implementations will produce
different results.

Consider the program

       PROGRAM MINTTY
         CHARACTER C
         OPEN (10, FILE='/dev/tty')
         OPEN (11, FILE='/dev/tty')
         READ (10, '(A)') C
         PRINT *, C
         READ (11, '(A)') C
         PRINT *, C
         CLOSE(10)
         CLOSE(11)
       END

When I compile and run this program and give it the input

ab
cd

the program writes

  a
  c

If I change the values of the FILE= specifiers to be the
name of a regular file, the results for the same input

  a
  a

If I change the values of the FILE= specifiers to be the
name of a named pipe, the results depend on the size of the
input.  If the data written to the named pipe from outside
the program consists of PIPE_BUF or fewer bytes, the second
READ statement hangs waiting for input until more data is
written to the named pipe.  If the data consists of more
than PIPE_BUF bytes, the second READ statement treats the
PIPE_BUF + 1st character of the data as the first character
seen by unit 11.

Robert Corbett