Section 7: Compatibility_Features

 DEC Fortran provides the following language features to facilitate
 compatibility with other versions of Fortran:

  o  The DEFINE FILE, ENCODE, DECODE, and FIND statements

  o  A NOF77 interpretation of the EXTERNAL statement

  o  Octal forms of integer constants

  o  An alternative syntax for the PARAMETER statement

  o  The VIRTUAL statement

  o  The AND, OR, XOR, IMAG, LSHIFT, and RSHIFT intrinsic functions

  o  An alternative syntax for bit constants

  o  C-style escape sequences

  o  An alternative syntax for a record specifier


 These language features are particularly useful in transporting
 older Fortran programs to systems on Alpha AXP or RISC processors.
 However, you should avoid using them in new programs on these
 systems, and in new programs for which portability to other
 FORTRAN-77 implementations is important.

Sub-Topics

1. DEFINE_FILE
2. ENCODE_and_DECODE
3. FIND
4. NOF77_EXTERNAL
5. Octal_Notation
6. PARAMETER
7. VIRTUAL
8. Intrinsic_Functions
9. Bit_Constant_Syntax
10. C-Style_Escape_Sequences
11. Record_Specifier_Syntax