[J3] Revision of "inquiry function" definition is needed

[Malcolm Cohen]

Hi folks,

I note that this dates back to Fortran 2003. However...

There is no issue here. IEEE_SUPPORT_DENORMAL has arguments, and the result may depend on their properties. That there might be no actual argument in a specific reference does not make the dummy arguments cease to be dummy arguments. And the result of the function in question is properly defined (in the subclause that defines that function).

And the property of being “not present” (for an optional argument) is indeed a property of the dummy argument that is not its value!

So I do not agree that the definition *needs* to be updated or modified.

That said, it *might* be worth considering an editorial change to make it less confusing for some. Perhaps changing the definition to something like
  intrinsic function, or function in an intrinsic module, whose result
  can depend on the properties of one or more of its arguments, but
  does not depend on their values

would be worth considering.
Or Bob’s somewhat circular-sounding suggestion of (paraphrase) “function classified as an inquiry function”, with the above text as a Note. However, as the definition we have has actually uncovered mistakes (where functions were wrongly classified as inquiry functions), that has its own flaws.
Furthermore, as there is nothing actually wrong with the existing text, I would definitely give this a rather low priority.
Cheers,
-- 
........................Malcolm Cohen, NAG Oxford/Tokyo.
 
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