ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG5-N1713 Canadian National Activity Report presented to the meeting of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG5 (Fortran), Las Vegas, USA, February 10 - 15, 2008 CAC/JTC1/SC22/WG5 is a member in CAC/JTC1/SC22, a Canadian committee body that mirrors functionality of JTC1/SC22. The committee meets quarterly. The representative of CAC/JTC1/SC22/WG5 is also a member of INCITS/ANSI Fortran committee J3. Since the last WG5 London meeting in 2007, CAC/JTC1/SC22/WG5 has been focusing on reviewing the content of the revised Fortran standard. Canada's opinion on the current Fortran 2008 draft can be summarized as follows: 1. Current specification of co-arrays is too large, adding huge burden on implementation. Reductions on this feature are highly desirable. HoD of Canada has submitted a proposal for reduction of co-arrays - see ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG5 N1712. Further suggestions on feature reduction are also welcome. 2. There is a minority view that co-arrays may not present the best approach to parallel programming. It may cause unnecessary damage to the language if prematurely included in the standard. Therefore moving co-arrays in a TR seems a safer solution. Canada agrees to this approach and views a TR as the best possible approach at the given moment. Jim Xia CAC/JTC1/SC22/WG5 (Fortran) representative Feburary 05, 2008