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                                        J3/03-277

Date:      November 12, 2003
To:        J3
From:      Aleksandar Donev (JOR)
Subject:   Proposals from 03-253, 03-254, 03-255, 03-256, 03-266
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Note: Starred (*) points indicate that no specific proposal has yet been written on this. They came out of our discussion of the papers above. The hope is that full proposals will be developed to address the issues/needs raised.

1. 03-253: Allowing Multiple Nonzero-Rank Part References for Structure Components

2. 03-254: Allowing MOLD in ALLOCATE

3*. Contiguous array pointers
This arose from discussion of 03-255.
There are many ways to approach this, and the direction proposed in 03-255 was not deemed the right one. Further work is needed to find ways to guarantee contiguity for array arguments and (targets of) pointers. For example, see 2.9.1.2 in 03-258.

4*. A simple way to dereference a C pointer in Fortran
C pointers provide the storage savings that 03-255 is concerned with. A syntax to dereference C pointers directly in Fortran as an array would make them a better alternative to MOVABLE arrays. It would also possibly standardize current practices which use Cray pointers.

5. 03-256: A form of TYPEALIAS
03-256 only gives reasons why a form of type alias is needed, without proposing a specific solution. Further investigation is needed to form a specific proposal.

6*. Solution to problems in 03-266
Alternative ways to solve the problems identified in 03-266 with ELEMENTAL are needed. One possible direction is introducing "assumed rank arrays", which would allow one to write efficient rank-independent (generic) code.
				
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3. 03-255: MOVABLE arrays (see parts 3 and 4 for better approaches)

6. 03-266: Changes to ELEMENTALs (see part 6 above)