...

2. Characters beyond column 72 should be identified, either with a

different color or different font.

This one, at least, is very easy and is not language-specific. First, go into Preferences. In the General settings, check "Show right margin indicator" and "Highlight right margin". Next go into the View menu and set "Wrap Column" to 72. Make sure that "Soft Wrap" is *not* checked. The result is that you'll get a thin line between columns 72 and 73, and all columns past 72 will have a shaded background.

As for the rest, I'm afraid I can't help you. I'm quite happy to say that I haven't touched F77 (or any other FORTRAN dialect, for that matter) in almost 25 years now. Back when punchcards were only slightly outdated. :-)

Okay! This is a start. I'll give it a try.

As for f77 being not exactly modern, here are a few words in its defense, and to encourage its support :

* F77 is still widely used in scientific computing, often as an 'under the hood' machine-like language for computations on grids. It plays very well with C++ (unlike f90) and so remains the fast language of choice for heavy computations on structured arrays.

* It is much easier to use than C++ for students, and certainly faster than programs written purely in Matlab. While C++ allows for necessary high level data structures, many algorithms that form the basis for much of numerical analysis are most easily described in a fortran/matlab like syntax.

* What is not to love about a language that doesn't have pointers?

Okay, nuff said. Thanks again.

Donna Calhoun donna.calhoun@gmail.com