J3/06-283

To:      J3
From:    Bill Long
Subject: Reply to 06-184
Date:    15-Aug-2006

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J3 paper 06-184 proposed extending Fortran to allow the use of { } and
[ ] as alternatives to parentheses in expressions, and also the use of
^ instead of ** for raising to a power.

The use of [ ] for grouping terms of an expression conflicts with the
current use of [ ] as part of the syntax for array constructors. This
conflict is significant and would result in existing programs becoming
nonconforming. There is no current syntax usage for { } in Fortran.
In the past we have tried to reserve these symbols for future
uses. Such a future use might be the one suggested by 06-184, but we
are not ready to commit to this usage at this time.

Other languages, including C, use the ^ operator for the exclusive or
operation.  Because of this, the use of ^ for Fortran's power
operation could be confusing, and this possibility seems to outweigh
the benefit.