I wrote recently regarding the f77 capabilities in TextMate. I recently downloaded the demo version of TM, and found it to very useful in many ways. But I found its f77 indenting rules less than satisfactory. I really want to be able to use TM and would gladly purchase a copy, but I've come to rely heavily on automatic indenting and formatting for checking syntax errors, making the code readable and so on. I am afraid that a lack of proper indenting rules is a showstopper for me.

I apologize in advance for comparing TM with Emacs, but below is a list of indenting rules for f77 ("punchcard Fortran") that I've come to expect from Emacs. Is there any way to get these features in TM?

1. All lines should start in column 7, with two exceptions : * Lines whose first character is 'c' or 'C' (the comment character). Emacs also leaves 'd' and 'D' in the first column although this could (happily) be dropped. See comments below.

* line continuation characters. Continuations are indicated by any character in column 6. The customary continuation character is '&'.

* Line numbers. Used mainly for 'format' statements, but also for 'goto', and if one is really old school, do/continue statements. The format/continue/goto should always start in column 7, but the line number should be right justified, with final character in column 5.

2. Characters beyond column 72 should be identified, either with a different color or different font.

3. Comments should be properly indented. The comments character should remain in column 1, but all remaining text should align given current context. In emacs, comments are also properly wrapped, with a comment character put in column 1, and the comment continuing at its proper indentation level.

4. Fixed tabbing beyond column 7. Emacs appears to use 3-spaces per tab (by default), which is fine, although it would be nice to allow for customized tabs beyond column 7.

5. Ideally, lines which are longer than 72 characters would automatically be split, with a default continuation character added in line 6 on new line.

I think I got most of the important items. Here is a sample of "properly" (at least in my opinion - I'd be curious to hear what others think) formatted f77 code (formatted in Aquamacs). All formatting rules are applied by hitting "tab" in Aquamacs when the cursor is anywhere on the the line to be formatted.

subroutine assign_src(mx,my,meqn,q0,lap0,t,rhs) implicit none

integer mx, my, meqn double precision t integer m

double precision q0(0:mx+1,0:my+1,meqn) double precision lap0(0:mx+1,0:my+1,meqn) double precision rhs(0:mx+1,0:my+1,meqn) integer i,j double precision lap_u,at,dadt double precision long_line

call qval_time(t,at,dadt)

do m = 1,meqn do j = 1,my do i = 1,mx c # Comments are properly indented after the comment character in c # line 1, and are correctly wrapped they exceed column 72. c # (The '#' marks are mine) lap_u = rhs(i,j,m) rhs(i,j,m) = lap_u - at*lap0(i,j,1) + dadt*q0(i,j,1)

c # A really long line with a continuation character in column 6 long_line = (rhs(i+1,j,m) + rhs(i-1,j,m) + rhs(i,j +1,m) + rhs(i & ,j-1,m) - 4*rhs(i,j,m))

c # Note line number in format statement in column < 7 and right c justified. Also, this comment is also wrapped. write(6,100) 'rhs',rhs(i,j,m) 100 format(A10,E16.8) enddo enddo

enddo

end

subroutine old_school() implicit none

integer i double precision x

c # example of line numbers in a do loop. x = 0 do 110 i = 1,20 x = x + 1 110 continue

end

Aquamacs/Emacs isn't perfect. Since 'd' and 'D' is also comment characters, AM will assume that a statement beginning with 'double precision' should leave the 'd' in column 1 and split the rest to column 7, which would likely lead to a compile error. The same thing happens with 'call' statements starting in column 1. Applying automatic indentation to

call quad()

results in

c all quad()

which will also result in a compiler error.

But aside from those few glitches (features?) I would be happy to see an Emacs style indenting in TM.

Also, I would be happy to hear if I am missing anything major in TM. Are there easy ways to get the above into the Fortran bundle?