ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG5 N1694

             Response to Ballot Comments - Interoperability TR

                              Bill Long


The WG5 responses to the comments made in SC22 N4170 (WG5-N1674)
"Summary of Voting on SC 22 N 4146, New Work Item Proposal for
Further Interoperability with C, TR Type 2" are:

Japan comment and United Kingdom comment (a):

   As recommended by the Japanese MB, the Title will be changed to
   "Further Interoperability of Fortran with C". The first comment in
   the United Kingdom ballot makes the same recommendation.

United States comment:

   As recommended by the United States, WG5 will recommend Bill Long
   as the Project Editor.

Canada comment:

   The planned design of this work item does not further expose data
   type layouts of the companion Fortran processor. Any conversions to
   or from Fortran data type structures are performed by functions
   with specified prototypes. The internal details of these functions
   are processor-dependent and hidden from the user.  No new Fortran
   syntax or terms are specified by this work item.  The new names and
   data structures introduced for use in a C function are of a style
   that should be intuitive to a C programmer.

United Kingdom comment (b):

   The planned design of this work item does not require any changes
   to the C standard or involve non-standard usage of the C
   language. The core of the capability is provided by structure
   definitions, named constants, and functions that are used by the C
   programmer but are supplied as part of the companion Fortran
   processor. In the spirit of the recommendation from the United
   Kingdom, the purpose and justification will be changed to:

   "Purpose and justification - C interoperability in the Fortran
   Standard provides for the sharing of some forms of data between
   Fortran and C. However, it does not address procedures that have
   data pointer, allocatable, assumed-shape, or optional dummy
   arguments. This work item aims to develop ways and means, using
   facilities provided by the companion Fortran processor, to allow C
   functions to handle such Fortran dummy arguments directly."