[RFC] Technical Report draft (TR 29113) on further interoperability with C

[Tobias Burnus]

Hi,

there is a new candidate draft of the TR draft available at 
http://j3-fortran.org/pipermail/j3/2011-March/004210.html (second link, 
you need to download it and then open it as the extension is not .pdf).

If you wait a while, you should also find it at:
http://j3-fortran.org/doc/year/11/11-154.pdf
ftp://ftp.nag.co.uk/sc22wg5/N1801-N1850/N1845.pdf

The TR contains an interoperable array descriptor - which one should 
consider using as internal format when changing the descriptor (cf. 
http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/ArrayDescriptorUpdate). But it also contains 
changes for MPI, namely for passing a "void *buffer" where only the byte 
size and not the type or rank of the actual argument matter.  ("type(*)" 
and "dimension(..)"). As small but useful feature, BIND(C) procedures 
can now also be OPTIONAL.

If you have time, please browse through the TR and review it in light of 
using it as internal array descriptor (with additional fields) - and 
using it for interoperability with C, other Fortran compilers or other 
languages. (Send your comments to J3 and/or WG5, cf. linked email.)

The draft should be almost finished as it is planned to send the draft 
soon to SC22 for a PDTR ballot. See also 
ftp://ftp.nag.co.uk/sc22wg5/N1801-N1850/N1844.txt. (The schedule 
indicates that at the next WG5 meeting in June - this time in 
Garching/Germany - the DTR will be constructed.)

Tobias