The following simple fortran code compiled in egcs (egcs-2.90.22 971220 (egcs-1.01 beta)) : integer I read(5,*) I stop end would not generate an error code if the variable read is in real format (i.e. 123.45 would be read 123 without error generated). This is (I think) an anomalous behaviour that is not common to other fortran compilers. Luca