[J3] USE statement – wish: permit specifying additionally the access-spec

[Bill Long]

While I'm not part of the Data subgroup, I’m pretty sure that the design for this feature was not an oversight.  Rather, it likely had to do with the fact that public and private declarations are limited to being only in a module, whereas USE statements (often) appear outside modules. Sure, you could add in a constraint that the access-spec cannot be specified in a USE statement that is outside a module, but that is just one extra complication that is not needed with the current design. 

That said, we already permit redundant ways to specify public and private for many other situations. So I would not be opposed to this idea.  Some comment from /Data would be informative.

Cheers,
Bill



> On Nov 15, 2019, at 3:02 PM, Vipul Parekh via J3 <j3 at mailman.j3-fortran.org> wrote:
> 
> On Fri, Nov 15, 2019 at 11:32 AM Tobias Burnus via J3
> <j3 at mailman.j3-fortran.org> wrote:
>> ..
>> I still believe that a use-stmt with access-spec is more readable than
>> use-stmt + access-stmt, but I agree that the functionality is already
>> covered. Hence, I think one should still (re)consider it – but with low
>> priority.
>> ..
> 
> Tobias makes a good point.
> 
> Is it possible to know whether there was a reason besides an oversight
> as to why access-spec with the USE statement was not introduced in
> Fortran 2018 itself when the deficiency with the default accessibility
> for entities accessed from a module was addressed?
> 
> If this is an oversight with Fortran 2018, then how can one exhort J3
> but importantly WG5 to include this and other such "Features that
> address deficiencies and discrepancies" on the Fortran 202X work-list?
> 
> Thanks,
> Vipul Parekh

Bill Long                                                                       longb at cray.com
Principal Engineer, Fortran Technical Support &   voice:  651-605-9024
Bioinformatics Software Development                      fax:  651-605-9143
Cray, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company/ 2131 Lindau Lane/  Suite 1000/  Bloomington, MN  55425