B Additional Language Features

To facilitate compatibility with older versions of Fortran, Compaq Fortran provides the following additional language features:

• The DEFINE FILE statement (Section B.1)
  
  
• The ENCODE and DECODE statements (Section B.2)
  
  
• The FIND statement (Section B.3)
  
  
• FORTRAN-66 Interpretation of the EXTERNAL Statement (Section B.4)
  
  
• An alternative syntax for the PARAMETER statement (Section B.5)
  
  
• The VIRTUAL statement (Section B.6)
  
  
• An alternative syntax for octal and hexadecimal constants (Section B.7)
  
  
• An alternative syntax for a record specifier (Section B.8)
  
  
• An alternate syntax for the DELETE statement (Section B.9)
  
  
• An alternative form for namelist external records (Section B.10)
  
  
• The Compaq Fortran POINTER statement (Section B.11)
  
  
• Record structures (Section B.12)

These language features are particularly useful in porting older Fortran programs to Fortran 95/90. However, you should avoid using them in new programs on these systems, and in new programs for which portability to other Fortran 95/90 implementations is important.