07/07/88  fortran.new_features.info

This info segment provides temporary documentation for new features of
the  MR12.2 FORTRAN compiler which may not have been documented in the
manual yet.


Current topics:

   Character variables can now be up to 128K-1 characters long.
   Character constants can be up to 512 characters long.


Character variables:

The maximum length of Fortran character variables has been increased
to 131071 (128K-1) for MR12.2. Prior to this it was 512. Constructs
like the following are now allowed:

      character a*128000

However, character constants (strings) are still limited to 512
characters long.

When using many large character variables, the compiler may issue the
message:

 FATAL ERROR 414:
 Implementation restriction: with the relocation of <Variable> in main_
 the stack frame has overflowed its limit of 62000 words.

This can be eliminated by compiling with the -large_array,-la option.


Character Constants:

 Character constants (strings) may now be up to 512 characters long.
Previously, they were limited to 256 characters.


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Historical Background

This edition of the Multics software materials and documentation is provided and donated
to Massachusetts Institute of Technology by Group BULL including BULL HN Information Systems Inc. 
as a contribution to computer science knowledge.  
This donation is made also to give evidence of the common contributions of Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Bell Laboratories, General Electric, Honeywell Information Systems Inc., Honeywell BULL Inc., Groupe BULL
and BULL HN Information Systems Inc. to the development of this operating system. 
Multics development was initiated by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Project MAC (1963-1970),
renamed the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence in the mid 1970s, under the leadership
of Professor Fernando Jose Corbato. Users consider that Multics provided the best software architecture 
for managing computer hardware properly and for executing programs. Many subsequent operating systems 
incorporated Multics principles.
Multics was distributed in 1975 to 2000 by Group Bull in Europe , and in the U.S. by Bull HN Information Systems Inc., 
as successor in interest by change in name only to Honeywell Bull Inc. and Honeywell Information Systems Inc. .

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Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute these programs and their documentation for any purpose and without
fee is hereby granted,provided that the below copyright notice and historical background appear in all copies
and that both the copyright notice and historical background and this permission notice appear in supporting
documentation, and that the names of MIT, HIS, BULL or BULL HN not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining
to distribution of the programs without specific prior written permission.
    Copyright 1972 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Honeywell Information Systems Inc.
    Copyright 2006 by BULL HN Information Systems Inc.
    Copyright 2006 by Bull SAS
    All Rights Reserved