J3/04-259 To: J3 From: Craig Dedo Date: February 16, 2004 Subject: Field and Record Justification Number: Title: Field and Record Justification Submitted By: Craig Dedo Status: For Consideration References: Basic Functionality: Fortran should provide edit descriptors which allow the user to specify whether a particular field is right justified, center justified, or left justified. If justification is not specified, it would default to the current rules. Rationale: The current Fortran 95 standard and the Fortran 2003 FCD only allow justification as defined by the standard. If the programmer could specify field and record justification, s/he could produce much better aligned output with much less effort. Right now, it takes quite a lot of effort on the programmer's part in order to justify output, especially if it is to be centered on a record. Estimated Impact: Likely minimal. The existence of this feature in almost all word processing and spreadsheet software indicates that the algorithms are already highly developed and well known. Detailed Specification: One method would be to precede each field with JR for right justification, JL for left justification, and JC for center justification, with the target field immediately following in parentheses. Specifying JR, JC, or JL at the beginning of a record could specify justification for entire records. Investigation may reveal more effective methods for implementing each of these features. History: