J3/02-293 Date: 2002 October 12 To: J3 From: Walt Brainerd Subject: The name of the language I am a little hesitant to start this up as I didn't participate when it came around before (but not much 8^). Maybe "Fortran 2000" sounded cool and futuristic when it was adopted, but it is now so last millenium. I think we should consider a different informal name. I also think this should be considered "non substantive". We have a tradition of "Fortran XX", where XX is close to the year of publication. We were a little off with 77 and 90, a little further off with 95, and will be way off with 00 (or 2000). I think we should use a year from the current millenium. I would propose "Fortran 03", pronounced "Fortran Three". We had a Fortran II and a Fortran IV, so why not Three? '03 should be about one year behind publication date if all goes well, restoring the tradition of 77 and 90. It should be fairly easy to get some feeling of sentiment for or against something like this by e-mail so that it doesn't take up too much meeting time. I'm sure somebody will explain to me what a wonderful/stupid idea this is. I would be happy to create the editorial changes if it appears to be a popular idea.