g77 potential bug with "backspace" command

["Hudson, Peter O" <HudsonPO at navair dot navy dot mil>]

Gentlemen,

1st off, thanks for the outstanding FORTRAN compiler.   In the R&D world we
have to use and re-port a lot of legacy researchy codes ...often written in
FORTRAN. 

During one such instance is a slightly older NASA program that uses namelist
formatted input files along with some free format data. 

The free format data is read in a loop until it errors out of the loop when
it encounters the next namelist. It then uses BACKSPACE to back up and read
that namelist.  (probably not how I'd have done it).

At any rate the backspace command errors out of the program rather than
backing up.  The same result is duplicated in the enclosed test code called
backspace.f

 <<backspace.f>>  <<backspace.dat>> 
My work around was to add a junk namelist after the free format data.  It
could chew that up and spit out then read the next namelist for real...not
perfect but it works.  This let me eliminate the backspace command in the
source.

I'm not sure if "backspace" is supported or if this bug report should really
be an "I'd like to see this added".  But, at any rate it seems like a simple
thing to fix.

Specifics details:
running on Intergraph Pentium 400 
Windows NT
in a CYGNUS-B20 shell

source compiles fine, and works fine.

thanks for your attention:

-Peter Hudson-
Mechanical Engineer
NAWCWD China Lake

Attachment: backspace.f
Description: Binary data

Attachment: backspace.dat
Description: Binary data