B Additional Language Features

To facilitate compatibility with older versions of Fortran, Compaq Fortran provides the following additional language features:

• The DEFINE FILE statement (Section B.1)

• The ENCODE and DECODE statements (Section B.2)

• The FIND statement (Section B.3)

• FORTRAN-66 Interpretation of the EXTERNAL Statement (Section B.4)

• An alternative syntax for the PARAMETER statement (Section B.5)

• The VIRTUAL statement (Section B.6)

• An alternative syntax for octal and hexadecimal constants (Section B.7)

• An alternative syntax for a record specifier (Section B.8)

• An alternate syntax for the DELETE statement (Section B.9)

• An alternative form for namelist external records (Section B.10)

• The Compaq Fortran POINTER statement (Section B.11)

• Record structures (Section B.12)

These language features are particularly useful in porting older Fortran programs to Fortran 90. However, you should avoid using them in new programs on these systems, and in new programs for which portability to other Fortran 90 implementations is important.