http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.fortran/msg/b535884fdbd62f39 Intel has: in the manual "A pointer cannot be a function return value." As gfortran also rejects it, Error: CRAY POINTER attribute conflicts with FUNCTION attribute at (1) one could also add it to the manual, or to say it in James Van Buskirk's words: "We can see that gfortran doesn't like function results to be cray pointers either, although I can't find this in the gfortran manual."
There is no reason at all why this cannot be fixed. Adding non-standard on non-standard doesn't seem too bad:-) Paul
Patch proposed at: http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/fortran/2010-06/msg00099.html
Subject: Bug 38273 Author: fxcoudert Date: Thu Jun 10 20:02:39 2010 New Revision: 160569 URL: http://gcc.gnu.org/viewcvs?root=gcc&view=rev&rev=160569 Log: PR fortran/38273 * gfortran.texi: Document that Cray pointers cannot be function results. PR fortran/36234 * gfortran.texi: Document lack of support for syntax "complex FUNCTION name*16()", and existence of alternative legacy syntax "complex*16 FUNCTION name()". Modified: trunk/gcc/fortran/ChangeLog trunk/gcc/fortran/gfortran.texi
Fixed.