by Jeanne Adams
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Fortran 77 fades away; Fortran 90 reigns
On 5 June 1997, the U.S. National Committee for Information Technology Standardization, or NCITS (pronounced "insights") withdrew Fortran 77 as a standard. Fortran 90 is currently the official standard.
Fortran 95 draft approved
At their July 1997 meeting in Vienna, the international Fortran group WG5 voted on and passed the Fortran 95 draft as an international standard. 22 countries voted "yes," one voted "no," and four abstained. (France cast the one "no" vote, objecting to an incorrect translation of a French title.)
The technical reports on floating-point exceptions and enhanced
data types both passed. Publication of these technical reports
should occur late in 1997 or early 1998.
At an 11 August meeting in Breckenridge, Colorado, the U.S. Fortran Standards Committee J3 reviewed the decision of WG5 and recommended that Fortran 95 supercede Fortran 90. An ad-hoc group discussed a number of comments resulting from the Vienna meeting and offered suggestions to WG5, which reviewed and approved the changes.
WG5 has submitted the Fortran 95 draft international standard for publication.
Fortran 2000 may appear in 2002 or 2003
Meanwhile, in February 1997, the WG5 and J3 committees held a joint
international meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada, to finalize requirements for
Fortran 2000. (WG5 customarily specifies the requirements for a new
standard, while J3 provides the technical details.)
Representatives from many countries attended the meeting,
including Great Britain, Austria, Germany, Finland, the
Netherlands, Japan, and, of course, the United States.
The committees determined that not enough time remains to
do an adequate technical job of defining new requirements and
still release the standard in the year 2000; therefore,
the schedule for Fortran 2000 has slipped by at least a year.
At the earliest, it will not be available until late in
2002 or early 2003.
The Fortran community is now debating whether to call the
standard Fortran 2000 or Fortran 2002.
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