HP OpenVMS Systems

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passing characters from c to fortran?

The Question is:

I need  to pass characters from c to fortran,
what is the best way?  By reference or actual arguments?

Also, Does Open VMS have trouble passing character
data defined as char msg [] in c to character*(*) msg1
in fortran?

The Answer is:

    Digital Fortran requires that character data be passed by descriptor.  See the
    DEC C (or VAX C) documentation for details on how to do this.  If a proper
    descriptor is passed, you can declare the argument in Fortran as
    CHARACTER*(*).

    It is also possible to pass characters from C to Fortran using
    byte arrays, though you need to either scan them after the fact
    or pass the length too. You can EQUIVALENCE byte arrays to character
    variables, with the same caution.

    It is also easy to pass descriptors from C to Fortran...