To: J3                                                     J3/18-124
From: Gary Klimowicz
Subject: Increase maximum line lingth
Date: 2018-February-14

Reference: 18-007

Fortran programs are now sometimes being generated by
other programs, and not just by Fortran programmers.
We would like to increase the free form line length to
accommodate such program generation.

The proposal is to increase the line length to 4096
characters.

The proposal would leave the number of continuation lines
unchanged at 255.

6.3.2.1 (Free form line length) says:
"If a line consists entirely of characters of default kind
(7.4.4), it may contain at most 132 characters."

The proposal would change 6.3.2.1 to read:
"If a line consists entirely of characters of default kind
(7.4.4), it may contain at most 4096 characters."