HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: joelw@convex.com (Joel Williamson)
Subject: Re: A VMS Fortran I/O question
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 18:34:02 GMT
Organization: Engineering, CONVEX Computer Corp., Richardson, Tx., USA
X-Disclaimer: This message was written by a user at CONVEX Computer
              Corp. The opinions expressed are those of the user and
              not necessarily those of CONVEX.

In article <1992Dec31.153918.16765@e2big.mko.dec.com> lionel@quark.enet.dec.com (Steve Lionel) writes:
>
>In article <C03pyp.E4v@news.cso.uiuc.edu>, ercolessi@uimrl3.mrl.uiuc.edu 
>(furio ercolessi) writes...
>>Does anybody know (well, Steve Lionel certainly knows, but maybe
>>he's in holiday ...) what should I do to kill the carriage control character 
>>on the standard output in VMS Fortran ?
>> 
>>That is, I would like to be able to code something like
>>      PRINT '(a)','Hello'
>>instead of
>>      PRINT '(1x,a)','Hello'

Having read Steve Lionel's response (deleted), I suppose I'm missing
something obvious, but why not:

	PRINT '(a)', ' Hello'

	              ^
	Blank carriage control in the string.

Joel Williamson
-- 

Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
From: ercolessi@uimrl3.mrl.uiuc.edu (furio ercolessi)
Subject: Re: Dynamic Memory Allocation in FORTRAN, Question
Reply-To: ercolessi@uimrl3.mrl.uiuc.edu (furio ercolessi)
Organization: MRL - UIUC
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 19:40:52 GMT

In article <1992Dec21.172931.15093@netcom.com>, walt@netcom.com (Walt Brainerd) writes:
>In article <BzL8tz.H5u@news.cso.uiuc.edu>, ercolessi@uimrl3.mrl.uiuc.edu (furio ercolessi) writes:
|>> Well, if you stick to the FORTRAN standard the answer is no
|>> [of course, Fortran is another story].
|>
|>THE programming language Fortran has sometimes been written
|>"Fortran" (the way it appeared in the first IBM manuual for
|>the IBM 704) and sometimes been written "FORTRAN".  There has
|>been a trend to adopt "Fortran" since about 1978, just after
|>the Fortran 77 standard came out.  The point is that the
|>way of writing the word does NOT indicate the version.
|>Saying that standard FORTRAN does not have dynmaic storage
|>allocation, but standard Fortran does is very confusing.

Ooops! Sorry. Then I misinterpreted a discussion here some weeks 
ago. I will always add the number, promised!
--
Furio Ercolessi
Materials Research Laboratory           |   Intl School for Advanced Studies
Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign   |   Trieste, Italy
furio@uiuc.edu                          |   furio@sissa.it
From: arc2d@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: IO problems in UNIX
Date: 29 Dec 92 14:10:45 CST
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services

I have a question concerning IO with FORTRAN on a RS/6000.  I am using a code
(PMARC) which uses NAMELISTS.  One of the variables in a NAMELIST tells the
machine that real values follow.  The following statement reads the real values
READ(15,*,ERR=700) BY,. . .etc.  The error this read statement is trying to
"trap" is the end of the real values and the beginning of the next NAMELIST. 
On a VAX this "trap" works fine and gives the error which terminates the
reading of real values and the reading of the next NAMELIST.  But on a the
RS/6000, I get a warning and the machine merrily assigns a zero to the variable
which isn't supposed to be there until it reaches the EOF.
  Any suggestions on work arounds?  (I can always read a character string,
check the second position for a & or $.  If they are there read the NAMELIST,
or read the real values.  This means I can't start writing my reals until the
third column.  Not a severe problem, but one I would like to avoid for program
commonality.)
  Thanks in advance
  Tom Mouch  ARC2D@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
From: eng10317@nusunix1.nus.sg (TAN PONG FEI)
Subject: Re: testing!!!!!
Organization: National University of Singapore
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 02:45:16 GMT

hey F
TAN PONG FEI (eng10317@nusunix1.nus.sg) wrote:
: testing!!!!!
: 
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
From: ercolessi@uimrl3.mrl.uiuc.edu (furio ercolessi)
Subject: Re: A VMS Fortran I/O question
Reply-To: ercolessi@uimrl3.mrl.uiuc.edu (furio ercolessi)
Organization: MRL - UIUC
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 21:02:47 GMT

In article <1992Dec31.153918.16765@e2big.mko.dec.com>, lionel@quark.enet.dec.com (Steve Lionel)
writes:
|>In article <C03pyp.E4v@news.cso.uiuc.edu>, ercolessi@uimrl3.mrl.uiuc.edu 
|>(furio ercolessi) writes...
|>>Does anybody know (well, Steve Lionel certainly knows, but maybe
|>>he's in holiday ...) what should I do to kill the carriage control character 
|>>on the standard output in VMS Fortran ?
|>
|>Yes, I do know, and no, I'm not on vacation (though perhaps I should be..)
|>But you're not going to like the answer....

er ... yes i didn't like it ... but thanks anyway!

|>Is this really easier than using WRITE(6,) instead?

it's easier to use WRITE(6,) :-) and i'll probably do that ...

And, oh, some time ago I rambled about carriagecontrol='FORTRAN'
and the fact that some utilities do not recognize it, but at that time
I didn't remember exactly which ones.   Well, one is the Internet/DECnet
gateway software running on Ultrix boxes.  This software is wonderful 
and, being in a mixed environment, I use it all the time.  But there is
no way to transfer a file with carriagecontrol='FORTRAN', at least
in the release we have here:

3$ copy dum.dum x:"dum.dum"
%COPY-E-OPENOUT, error opening MRLUXB"ercoless password"::"dum.dum" as output
-RMS-F-SUPPORT, network operation not supported
-FAL-F-RAT, record attributes field rejected
%COPY-W-NOTCOPIED, $4$DUA8:[ERCOLESSI]DUM.DUM;1 not copied

where DUM.DUM on VMS has Fortran carriage control.
Also 'NONE' is not good; it has to be 'LIST' (then, also old good
EDT is entirely happy ...).

Thanks and have a happy new year!
--
Furio Ercolessi
Materials Research Laboratory           |   Intl School for Advanced Studies
Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign   |   Trieste, Italy
furio@uiuc.edu                          |   furio@sissa.it
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
From: michael@chpc.utexas.edu (Michael Lemke)
Subject: Re: f77 Compiler
Organization: The University of Texas System - CHPC
Date: Sun, 3 Jan 93 04:18:08 GMT

In article <1993Jan2.202258.28422@leland.Stanford.EDU> hockbin@leland.Stanford.EDU (hock-bin lim) writes:
>Hi,
>
>	While compiling a program using f77 in the Unix environment, what 
>is the -option command to generate a listing file (with line number
>appended for debugging purposes?  What is the -option command to generate
>the variable statistics at the end of the "list" file?

Well, you use Unix = one tool for one task.  So f77 compiles.  You want
a listing?  A cross reference?  Use something else.  Sorry, doesn't 
really come with Unix.  You could monkey with grep -nv @ file.f or 
something to get the line numbers but for a variable listing... ld can 
produce some sort of map but I don't think it is really what you are 
looking for.  But my first statemnet about one task - one tool is of 
course wrong: f77 doesn't just compile but also calls the linker and 
what have you.  Unix and consistency -- well...

Michael
-- 
Michael Lemke
Astronomy, UT Austin, Texas
(michael@io.as.utexas.edu or UTSPAN::UTADNX::IO::MICHAEL [SPAN])
From: f54oguocha@edison.usask.ca
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: Is FORTRAN a viable language?
Date: 30 DEC 92 23:33:39 GMT
Organization: University of Saskatchewan
NNTP-Posting-Host: edison.usask.ca


>Is FORTRAN dead?
> 
>I had always thought that, while C/C++ may be
>getting more publicity, there were still scientists
>and engineers who used FORTRAN.  So, where are
>all the FORTRAN messages?
> 
>Various magazine articles in the campus library seem
>to give the impression that FORTRAN is NOT dead, 
>since "everybody" still uses it.  If so, then why are there
>so few compilers on the market?  In Programmer's
>Paradise, Programmer's Shop, Programmers Up the Butt,
>The Connection, etc. (mail-order catalogs all), the
>C/C++ compilers outnumber the FORTRAN compilers
>several times over!
> 
>The ultimate question is, I guess, Should I even bother
>with the FORTRAN compiler?  Or should I make my main
>language C/C++?  Will there still be support for FORTRAN
>in 10 years?
hi,
if you are a scientist/applied scientist or studing to be one
in the future, i'll advise you to stay with FORTRAN because 
it has not yet got a better competitor in this sector. But if
you are just programming for hobby then C/C++ is what you need.
then if you are planning to be a marketable programmer, learn
as many languages as your purse can afford. 
i'll advise you not to be carried away by what you find in the shoppers'
guide or elsewhere and don't allow yourself to be drawn by the band wagon
if there is no need for that. every language has its merits and limitations.

as regards the time of obsolesence of the FORTRAN language, i don't think
that it will die in the next 20 years, not with all the efforts going on now
in different circles to bring more flexibility into FORTRAN. The current
MS-FORTRAN(5.1) is many miles ahead of FORTRAN 77 you are used to in terms
of flexibility and capabilities. it does most of those things the C/C++
protagonists make noise about if you understand it very well. again, with
the implementation of FORTRAN 90 very much at hand, we are surely going to
enjoy the FORTRAN language more than we've never done before. in all, stick
to that language that will make your pocket fatter and make life easier for
you. goodluck.
oguocha
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Help wanted finding "golden" numbers
From: st_waldman@fencer.cis.dsto.gov.au
Date: 23 Dec 92 14:15:08 +1100
Organization: D.S.T.O. Aeronautical Research Laboratory

Hi,

I am looking for some help with algorithms that can be used to generate
"golden" numbers with certain properties. These number will be used to
produce telephone numbers that are hopefully easy to remember. For example,
some "good" numbers are:

  647-1234, 647-2345, 647-4441, 647-2222 etc.

Some "bad" numbers are:

  647-3964, 647-0837

There may be a more precise term to describe such numbers, but I am not
aware of it.

If anyone can help, I would be pleased to hear from them. Any source code
in Pascal, Fortran, C, or BASIC would also be particularly appreciated.

Thank you for your consideration, and I would just like to wish all
those reading this message a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
Enjoy your holidays if you are taking some time off work.

+------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| Witold Waldman               | Aeronautical Research Laboratory     |
| Senior Professional Officer  | 506 Lorimer St                       |
| Airframes & Engines Division | Fishermens Bend VIC 3207             |
| Tel: +61 3 647 7488          | Melbourne, Australia                 |
| Fax: +61 3 646 7771          | eMail: witold@hotblk.aed.dsto.gov.au |
+------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
From: eng10317@nusunix1.nus.sg (TAN PONG FEI)
Subject: testing!!!!!
Organization: National University of Singapore
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 02:42:14 GMT

testing!!!!!

Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
From: alan@dmsmelb.mel.dms.CSIRO.AU (Alan Miller)
Subject: Re: faq: proposed response: various vendors f90 status
Organization: CSIRO, Div. of Mathematics & Statistics, Melbourne, Vic., AUSTRALIA
Date: Fri, 25 Dec 1992 06:55:36 GMT

In article <KHB.92Dec16183054@chiba.Eng.Sun.COM> khb@chiba.Eng.Sun.COM (Keith Bierman fpgoup) writes:
>
>I would appreciate those with relevent information to email me
>directly. I'll fold the responses into the Jan edition of the faq. It
>is best if the information is authortative, however, rumors will be
>marked as such.
>
>Q29) What are the various compiler vendors doing about Fortran 90?
>
>This is by no means a definitive listing <khb>
>
>IBM's xlf 2.3 compiler for the RS6000 has partial Fortran 90 included.
>Some features are implemented in the base compiler others are
>implemented via preprocessor support (user has choice of KAP or VAST).
>
>DEC has publically claimed '93 as a target for a Fortran 90 + HPF
>product. 
>
>SunPro has publically announced a technology agreement with NAG; the
>result to be an integration of the NAG front end with the SunPro
>optimizer, backend, and programming environment.
>
>CRI has not, to this author's knowledge (khb), provided dates for
>their Fortran product; however they have discussed the product with a
>wide range of users.
>
>HP has publically announced a phased implementation approach; the
>order of feature implementation to be customer driven.
>
>NAG has a full implementation, which functions via a translation step
>to C. It is available on a variety of platforms. See "Q2 above".
>
>Lahey has a Fortran 90 front end project, a final compiler has not
>been announced.
>
>PSR's VAST-90 is available (see Q2 above).
>
>Kuck and Associates is said to have a translator (evidence, it is
>included as part of xlf 2.3) to f77. 
>
>Parasoft (see Q2 above).
>--
>----------------------------------------------------------------
>Keith H. Bierman    keith.bierman@Sun.COM| khb@chiba.Eng.Sun.COM
>SunPro 2550 Garcia MTV 12-40             | (415 336 2648) fax 964 0946
>Mountain View, CA 94043  <speaking for myself, not Sun*> Copyright 1992
>


In your `rumour' category - unless you have better information than I have -
you could add that the EPC (Edinburgh Portable Compilers) f90 is almost
ready for beta testing.   It could be the first true compiler for f90 -
as opposed to the various packages which translate from f90 to either C or
Fortran 77.   Does anyone have more detailed information about the EPC f90
compiler?   I get their newsletter, but the last one was very quiet about
their f90 compiler.

-- 
Alan Miller, Quality Improvement Project
CSIRO Division of Mathematics & Statistics, Melbourne, Australia
Phone: +61 3 542-2266   Fax: +61 3 542-2474  E-mail: alan@mel.dms.csiro.au
Mail: CSIRO DMS, Private Bag 10, Clayton, Vic. 3168, Australia
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
From: hockbin@leland.Stanford.EDU (hock-bin lim)
Subject: f77 Compiler
Organization: DSG, Stanford University, CA 94305, USA
Date: Sat, 2 Jan 93 20:22:58 GMT

Hi,

	While compiling a program using f77 in the Unix environment, what 
is the -option command to generate a listing file (with line number
appended for debugging purposes?  What is the -option command to generate
the variable statistics at the end of the "list" file?

	Thank you.

With best regards,
Hock Bin
From: mjl@dino.ph.utexas.edu (Maurice J. LeBrun)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: Is FORTRAN a viable language?
Date: 30 Dec 92 10:26:34 GMT
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin
In-reply-to: chew@accel.aa.washington.edu's message of 29 Dec 92 23:41:27 GMT

In article <1hqnn7INNfac@shelley.u.washington.edu> chew@accel.aa.washington.edu (Gilbert Chew) writes:

   Is FORTRAN dead?

Not yet :-).  

Scientists have traditionally been concerned with performance above all else,
and as a result Fortran (which translates very efficiently into machine
language) has stayed preeminent in numerical computing.  There are some
trends which threaten to change this.  One is that with C and C++ you can
(perhaps with some effort) write code that is as fast as straight Fortran
code.  Another is that codes become more ambitious, language support for
function prototypes, data structures, scoping, OOP, etc, becomes crucially
important.

As as scientist with a strong leaning towards computation and software
design, I would strongly urge you to start learning C & C++ now.  There are
just so many things you can do with C that you can't come close to in Fortran
77 it's not funny.  And C++ is a whole new ball game.

Sure, there's the *promise* of Fortran 90.  Maybe in a few years we'll see
enough standard-compliant, bug-free compilers on different platforms as to
call the new standard a success.  In the mean time, ANSI C is in general
*very* well supported, and the object-oriented programming & design world is
taking off, with C++ a good way to get involved quickly.  A whole new
paradigm for programming.  Great for the big projects.  Are you going to be
programming the rest of your life?  If so, what's an extra month to study a
new concept?  Even if you end up never using C++, you get something out of
it.  IMHO, of course.

We now return you to your normally scheduled program...

--
Maurice LeBrun    mjl@dino.ph.utexas.edu
Institute for Fusion Studies, University of Texas at Austin

Faire de la bonne cuisine demande un certain temps.  Si on vous fait
attendre, c'est pour mieux vous servir, et vous plaire.
                                [menu of restaurant Antoine, New Orleans]
From: iversen@dsfys1.fi.uib.no (Per Steinar Iversen)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: How to detect format overflow
Date: 23 Dec 92 06:26:47 GMT
Reply-To: iversen@vsfys1.fi.uib.no
Organization: Department of Physics, University of Bergen, Norway


In article <1992Dec22.140111.5270@statoil.no>, c79057@petek.tek.st.statoil.no (Joergen Leiknes) writes:

>I want to detect overflow in format statements, to avoid to have
>asterisks in the produced output. (Yes,I know that it is possible
>to have larger fields for each variable, but it would be nice to
>have an error jump when such things occur)
>
>In the little test program below:
>      PROGRAM IOTEST
>      INTEGER ISTAT, I
>      REAL X
>      X = 123123.3
>      I = -123123
>      WRITE(*,700,ERR=900, IOSTAT= ISTAT) X, I
>700   FORMAT(' X is ',F6.3,' I is ',I6)
>      GOTO 999
>
>900   CONTINUE
>      WRITE(*,*) ' IOERROR no. ', ISTAT
>      GOTO 999
>
>999   CONTINUE
>      END
>
>Gives this output:
> X is ****** I is ******
>
>and no error is catched.
>
>I would like to know if it is possible according to f77 or f90 standard
>to catch such overflows.
>
>Thanks in advance
>Jorgen Leiknes, Statoil NORWAY

This would seem to depend on your compiler:

-With DEC Fortran 3.2 under Ultrix 4.2 I get:

 X is ****** I is ******
  IOERROR no.           63

-With VAX Fortran 5.8 under VMS 5.5 I get:
X is ****** I is ******
 IOERROR no.           63

The DEC manuals lists Fortran error 63 as "Output conversion error".

-On an HP 425e I did not get any error...

I think it is rather nasty not to detect or flag this error condition. You
can get around the problem by first doing an internal write to a character 
string, check for *'s in the right/wrong places and then act on that before
final output. The following piece of (very ugly) code work on both Ultrix,
VMS and HP: 

      PROGRAM IOTEST
      INTEGER ISTAT, I
      REAL X
      CHARACTER*6 XCH, ICH
      X   =  123123.3
      I   = -123123
      XCH = '******'
      WRITE(XCH,'(F6.3)',ERR=100) X
100   IF ( XCH .EQ. '******') GOTO 900
      ICH = '******'
      WRITE(ICH,'(F6.3)',ERR=110) I
110   IF ( ICH .EQ. '******') GOTO 900
      WRITE(*,700) XCH, ICH
700   FORMAT(' X is ',A,' I is ',A)
      GOTO 999

900   CONTINUE
      WRITE(*,*) ' IOERROR...'
      GOTO 999

999   CONTINUE
      END


-psi

+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
! Per Steinar Iversen    ! Internet:     iversen@vsfys1.fi.uib.no              !
! Fysisk Institutt       ! BITnet:       iversen@cernvm.bitnet                 !
! Universitetet i Bergen ! HEPnet:       VSFYS::IVERSEN (VSFYS=21.341=21845)   !
! Allegaten 55           ! Phone:       +47 5212770                            !
! N-5007 Bergen          ! Fax:         +47 5318334                            !
! NORWAY                 !                                                     !
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
From: ctrcsa@iapa.uucp%mailhost.ecn.uoknor.edu (Chris S. Arnold)
Subject: Re: Is FORTRAN a viable language?
Organization: FAA / Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1992 13:55:53 GMT


In response to your (Gilbert Chew) question about "...why are there more C/C++ compilers on the market than Fortran?"  I think it's because Fortran is an industry language.  For those who do programming at home for a "hobby" probably don't think about doing it in Fortran.  I guess what I'm saying is, for home use, Fortran's not the usual way to go.  Businesses who use Fortran most likely got there Fortran compiler with there computer system.  Just MHO.
-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Instrument Approach Procedures Automation              DOT/FAA/AMI-230
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Chris S. Arnold                    ctrcsa%iapa@mailhost.ecn.uoknor.edu
From: khb@chiba.Eng.Sun.COM (Keith Bierman fpgoup)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: Dynamic Memory Allocation in FORTRAN, Question
Date: 22 Dec 92 10:04:27
Organization: SunPro
NNTP-Posting-Host: chiba
In-reply-to: corbett@lupa.Eng.Sun.COM's message of 22 Dec 1992 06:06:41 GMT


In article <ljdc3hINNqhc@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> corbett@lupa.Eng.Sun.COM (Robert Corbett) writes:

       (5)  Fortran 90 has not superceded FORTRAN 77 in the USA.
	    The ANSI FORTRAN Standard, X3.9-1978, and the ANSI
	    Fortran Standard, X3.198-1992, have coequal status.
						^^^^^^^

Not quite. X3 assigned X3.9-1978 "archival" status; by which they mean
that new projects to extend or augment it will be denied. X3H5, for
example, requested project ids for bindings to both, and were
permitted one for X3.9-198-1992 *only*.
--
----------------------------------------------------------------
Keith H. Bierman    keith.bierman@Sun.COM| khb@chiba.Eng.Sun.COM
SunPro 2550 Garcia MTV 12-40             | (415 336 2648) fax 964 0946
Mountain View, CA 94043  <speaking for myself, not Sun*> Copyright 1992

Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
From: michael@chpc.utexas.edu (Michael Lemke)
Subject: Re: A VMS Fortran I/O question
Organization: The University of Texas System - CHPC
Date: Sun, 3 Jan 93 04:04:53 GMT

In article <MARBY.93Jan2161438@laura.harvard.edu> marby@laura.harvard.edu (Craig Marby) writes:
>>>>>> On 31 Dec 92 02:08:48 GMT, ercolessi@uimrl3.mrl.uiuc.edu (furio ercolessi) said:
>
>furio> Does anybody know (well, Steve Lionel certainly knows, but maybe
>furio> he's in holiday ...) what should I do to kill the carriage control character 
>furio> on the standard output in VMS Fortran ?
>
>furio> That is, I would like to be able to code something like
>furio>       PRINT '(a)','Hello'
>furio> instead of
>furio>       PRINT '(1x,a)','Hello'
>furio> in order to bring the code back and forth between Unix and VMS and 
>furio> retain the same behavior
>
>How about the following solution.
>
>1. Create a temporary mailbox (pick your own name)
>2. Assign logical FOR$PRINT to point to this mailbox.
>3. Set up a write-attention AST on the mailbox using a SYS$QIO.
>4. Wait for a PRINT statement to be executed.
>5. Every time your AST is called (which will be line by line) read
>   the line out of the mailbox and add an extra space at the
>   beginning. You can then send it to where ever you want (you may
>   want to determine this prior to step 1).

Umm, that will certainly work but isn't a bit overkill?  I don't know
how it affects performance but it certainly requires quite a bit of
non-portable code.  I'd rather think the *Unix* stuff should honor
FORTRAN carriage control.  Well, I know it doesn't but a PRINT
statement after all creates a print file (or even sends something to a
printer), so doesn't FORTRAN require print files to honor the carriage
control character?  What is the excuse this time that the Unix joke is
still standard conform?  I'd discourage the practice to write code
without carriage control characters as the standard requires them,
doesn't it?  BTW, in Sun Fortran there is a special STATUS='PRINT' in
the OPEN statement which causes the first character to be ignored if a
blank or to be converted to a CTRL/L if a 1 etc.  `+' does not work
though. This evne works for stdout but I don't know about PRINT.  Maybe 
your Unix compiler has something similar.

Michael
-- 
Michael Lemke
Astronomy, UT Austin, Texas
(michael@io.as.utexas.edu or UTSPAN::UTADNX::IO::MICHAEL [SPAN])